The next day, Riley wasn’t in English class.
He wasn’t in French class either.
Tuesday passed.
During the few minutes we had for a mid-morning snack between French and Biology on Wednesday morning, still no sign of him. The logical part of my brain told me that I should be relieved.
So why didn’t I feel relieved?
“Andi?” said Bree. “Are you okay?”
I’d almost forgotten Bree was there. It was hard not to, with thoughts of Riley racing through my mind. “I’m fine,” I said mechanically. But I wasn’t.
Bree, as always, took that at face value and started going on about something else, munching Cheetos while talking about the new episode of this or how Natalie said that, but I found myself drifting away. Was I fine? No, I wasn’t. I couldn’t be. This feeling in my heart, radiating outward across me, choking me up, holding up Riley’s toned body and his cocky smile in my mind’s eye… Surely I was sick.
But why? After he’d been so weird and smug and then downright threatening, why couldn’t I just be relieved that he wasn’t at school anymore to give me that smoldering look of disdain he had reserved special for me? Why couldn’t I just stop thinking about him?
“Are you sure you’re okay?” said Bree. “You don’t look so good.”
How could I explain it to Bree? She wouldn’t understand. She couldn’t understand. I didn’t even know if I understood. And outside of things like schoolwork, spelling, history or general knowledge, there was very little Bree understood that I didn’t.
“Hey,” said Bree, gazing longingly at the granola bar I’d forgotten to even unwrap, “are you gonna eat that?”
We stepped into Biology. Vik was there, in an unusually aloof, dreamy state, but still no sign of Riley. And, to my ever-sinking heart, Mr. Cho wasn’t there either.
Looked like we were going to get to enjoy Ms. Epistola as our substitute again. Goody.
As the bell rang signifying that we needed to be settled in class, her red lips curled into a sultry smile.
She was wearing an even more form-fitting shirt under her lab coat that made me wonder if it even fit the dress code, and her hair was no longer up in a bun, but flowing in luxurious, auburn locks down her back, looking like she’d just stepped off the set of a shampoo commercial.
I looked over to Vik at the table next to me and Bree; he seemed captivated by her. And who wouldn’t be? We were mortals in the presence of a goddess.
How could anyone ever be interested in someone like me with women like her in the world?
She lifted a piece of chalk up to the board with her perfectly-manicured fire engine-red nails, and wrote:
‘Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.’
Those words, that language!
“Are any of you familiar with the legends… of the Elder Gods?”
The class sat in awkward silence.
“It is fortunate, then, that Mr. Cho was discussing the deep sea this week, as that is a special interest of mine,” said Ms. Epistola as she took gliding steps back and forth across the room in her stilettos. “It pertains not only to the mysteries of the deep, but also to those of archeology and anthropology. They are the Great Old Ones, giant creatures that are said to have large houses beneath the sea. It is said that mortals sometimes sense the presence of the Old Ones, meeting them only in their dreams, the one place where they can be truly comprehended.”
I tore my thoughts from lamenting how pale and awful my skin was compared to hers at the mention of dreams. Dreams. What she was saying seemed like a bunch of inane babble, but the bit about dreams felt all too familiar. Meeting in my dreams incomprehensible creatures of the sea, the place I feared most and yet was inexorably drawn to. And that language she was using, so similar to what I had heard in my dream. I couldn’t escape the feeling that maybe there was something to what she was saying.
And that it might have something to do with Riley.
“We’ve pieced this information together based on artifacts from primeval cults.” Ms. Epistola’s eyes flashed. “And of course, ancient books. Old innocuous-seeming books with special significance to the Great Ones. Books so significant that their mortal owners, small-minded and well-meaning though they might be, may not even grasp their power.”
Bree raised her hand. Ms. Epistola glared at her. “Miss Ficus?”
“Fifan,” corrected Bree. “Aren’t we supposed to be learning about marine biology? Wouldn’t these old lessons belong in like, an anthropology or archaeology course or something?”
Ms. Epistola’s eyes flashed with that unmistakable intensity of a woman scorned. “This is the lesson your teacher left me,” she said, her voice wavering for a fraction of a second before regaining her calm, cool composure. She smoothed out her blouse, tossed her hair and smiled, her white teeth in sharp contrast against her dark red lips. It all only reminded me of how goofy I looked whenever I tried to wear cosmetics, like a doll a little girl tried to crayon her mother’s makeup on.
The lesson continued from there, but I hardly paid attention. She was going on and on about archaeological stuff, some old tribal things that happened down in Louisiana or something and then some blather about ships disappearing and sailors losing their minds in the South Pacific. I only caught tidbits; I had to force myself not to stare at the clock, willing it to move. It was bad enough to feel so uncertain about Riley, but sitting through Ms. Epistola’s lectures, watching every guy in the class drool over her?
Ugh.
Thirty-five torturous minutes later, I was finally saved by the bell.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, class,” said Ms. Epistola. Somehow it felt more like a threat than a promise. “Provided Mr. Cho is still feeling unwell.” She sashayed out of the room.
“I’ll meet you guys in the cafeteria,” said Vik, his bag already packed as he dashed out of his chair to follow Ms. Epistola. “I need to ask Scarlett some questions.”
“About what?” I inquisitioned him, but he was gone in a flash. “Scarlett?”
My heart did a little flip, my blood starting to simmer. There was something I really didn’t trust about Ms. Epistola, and I really didn’t like Vik going after her like that.
“She’s really into this whole Atlantean deep sea archaeology stuff!” said Bree, oblivious as always. “Even if it really has nothing to do with marine biology.”
“Yeah,” I said, shoving my notebooks into my bag as quick as I could. I was still really anxious about Vik, but thoughts of Riley soon butted their way back in, demanding my attention. He hadn’t been at school for two days now. The slight thrill of relief I had felt at first yesterday was now replaced with dread; what if, in confronting him about Travis’s madness, I had driven him away? What if he never came back?
There were so many questions left unanswered, so much I still desired to know of him. After what had happened at the pool party and then those things he’d said to me Monday? There was something very fishy about Riley Bay.
Wednesday passed.
Thursday morning, he still wasn’t in English or French. And come third period, Ms. Epistola, true to her word, was our teacher again. She was still going on about the glory of her ‘Elder Gods.’ Bree kept shaking her head and saying that it didn’t have anything to do with marine biology, but all I could think about was Riley. Well, Riley and Vik. Vik was transfixed by Ms. Epistola in a way that was starting to seem almost religious, like he was bowing piously before some kind of goddess at an altar.
Was she really that beautiful? Oh, who was I kidding, of course she was. Although if it were possible, it seemed that her skirt under the lab coat had gotten even shorter, and her red knit top was so tight! If it hadn’t been for the white coat, there would have been nothing left to the imagination.
When the bell rang for lunch and Ms. Epistola gave her signature sensual wink and sashayed out the door, once again Vik scooted after her like a loyal puppy. Though before he made it into the hall, he stopped and looked back at me. “You’re going to lunch now, right?”
What kind of question was that? “Of course.”
“We need to talk.” With that, he dashed out of the room after our curvaceous substitute.
Uh oh, that couldn’t be good. I wondered what it could be about, then I remembered the look Vik gave me Saturday when Riley pulled me out of the water after Travis had attacked me. The look he had given Riley. Maybe Vik had some insight to Riley’s mysterious disappearance?
“C’mon, um, I think Vik wants to talk to us about something in the cafeteria,” I mumbled to Bree.
“About what?” Apparently she had not heard him.
“I dunno, something! He didn’t say.” I started to hurriedly stumble toward the door. I wondered if she could see right through me. I knew exactly what Bree would say: “Typical Andi Slate. Just can’t stand up for yourself and say what’s on your mind.” And she was right. I just was not the confrontational type, and it never did me any good when I tried. I was nothing like loud and boisterous Bree. The one time I tried to be like her, I’d made an enemy for life in Riley.
“What’s the big hurry?” yelled Bree, still at our desk putting her things away. I hadn’t even realized she wasn’t following me. I was so buried in my own thoughts, so concerned with keeping my head down, I didn’t look where I was going until it was too late, and I slammed right into a wall of rock-hard abs sheathed in a tight, black t-shirt.
Riley.
“Sorry!” I stammered, jumping back. His green eyes were cold, vast and mysterious as the ocean. “Y-you weren’t in class the last few days.”
“I was studying.”
“Studying? During school?” I tried to stand up straight. “What were you studying, your prophecy?” I dared myself to cajole him.
His eyes burned. “You know not of what you speak, little one.”
“Why not?” I squeaked. I had wanted it to come out stronger than it did. “Because I’m just an ‘insignificant little girl?’ ”
His gaze was white-hot, it was all I could do not to cower under it. So overwhelmed was I that I scarcely heard Bree come up behind me.
“Hey, there you are, Riles!” she said. “Shame you weren’t in class the last couple of days. You missed Substitute Hottie, PhD going on about all sorts of conspiracy crazy stuff.”
“Crazy stuff?” he inquired.
“She’s not that hot,” I retorted.
“Walk with us to lunch?” asked Bree.
I did not get her! How could she be so unquestioningly blind and nice to people? Did she not see what he’d done to Travis?
Maybe Riley was right. No one would believe me.
“I have already feasted upon my required daily sustenance,” said Riley, his burning eyes aglow.
Bree laughed. “You’re cute,” she said. “I can see why the Andster likes you.”
I felt my face go sheet-white. Riley seemed nonplussed, moving on without a word. I marched toward the cafeteria like a robot, eyes wide, waiting for the blood to return to my face.
“Hey!” said Bree, playing catch up.
“Why would you say that?” I demanded once inside the bustling cafeteria.
“Oh, come on!” said Bree. “It’s obvious what’s going on. I know it, he knows it. It’s time to sweep those seashells off the table and give in to the passion!”
“You know I’m afraid of the ocean, Bree!”
“It was a joke, lighten up!”
I scoffed, turning from her to go find Vik. He sat at our usual spot on the far side of the room. I suppose Bree was a bit humbled after the incident at Henrietta’s a week ago; she didn’t even begin to suggest that we leave campus to find something more palatable. As I sat down with my veggie burrito, carrots and banana, Bree went to go stand in line, probably to get her usual double helping of ultra-processed half-plastic school pizza. I didn’t know how she could stand to stomach the stuff, but that topped with ranch dressing was one of her favorites.
“I can’t believe her,” I snapped. “I just can’t believe her! Telling Riley to his face that I like him? While I’m standing right there?”
Vik’s eyes shot up like I’d smacked him.
“I mean,” I amended. “It’s not true! I don’t like him. So uncool for her to tell him that. With me right there!”
“How could you like him?” asked Vik, concerned.
“I don’t! I just told you.”
“I don’t trust him,” said Vik. “He’s so broody and possessive… He talks weird, he just gives me a bad sense. I don’t like you around him.”
There Vik went again, playing up the protective brother routine. “I can take care of myself, you know.”
“Can you?” he said. “Normally I would agree, but I can’t take into account crazy people.”
“He’s not crazy!” I snapped, perhaps a little too quickly. “He’s just… Yes, I agree, there is something very strange about him. But I don’t think he’s violent, or would hurt anyone.” Not me, anyway, I thought, remembering Travis.
Vik huffed. “I don’t like the way you defend him.”
I scowled. “Well I don’t like you following around Ms. Epistola like a lovesick kitten every day after class, speaking of weird people with possibly eeeeeviiill motives.”
Vik blushed, and he frowned deeply. “I’m not a lovesick kitten. She’s my tutor and I have things to discuss with her. Academic things.”
I couldn’t help myself; I gasped, sucking in air as I did. “She tutors you? When?”
“After school,” he said, a little smug. I could tell he liked how upset it was making me. “She comes by to see my parents—”
“She was at your house?”
“Yes, she wanted to see some of our family’s heirlooms, particularly the Necronomicon.” He hesitated, but then shook his head. “But when I looked for it I couldn’t find it. I’m afraid it may have been stolen.”
“She visits you at your house?”
“She is my tutor, Andi!” he ejaculated. “Yes, and I just told you the Necronomicon might have been stolen!” He looked me levelly in the eye. “Do you know anything about it?”
“No, and why should I care?” I didn’t mean it. I had ached to look through that book again, to unlock the mystery of my dreams. A part of me, a big part, thought that perhaps it all was a piece in the greater puzzle of Riley Bay. He had only appeared after I read from the book, after all…
I shook my head. That was absurd. It was just some old book. “Maybe Riley stole it. If you hate him so much, go ask him,” I snapped.
“Maybe he did!”
“I was joking!”
“Well I wasn’t! He showed up right after we read from it!”
“Well maybe your tutor stole it.”
“What do you suspect her of?” demanded Vik. “Why are you so threatened by her? She’s just my tutor!”
“Tutoring you in what? ‘Marine biology?’ Well she’s teaching the wrong class if all she’s interested in is that archaeology and weird religious stuff!”
“I find that stuff interesting,” retorted Vik. “And for your information, she’s an adjunct at Miskatonic and that’s what she teaches in her night classes. She works with our parents. They all know her and she knows them. So yes, ‘marine biology’ but also that ‘archeology stuff’ that you’re too much of a philistine to care about.”
I scoffed, hurt. He shook his head. “Look,” he said, “I’m upset, Father was really mad at me. He blamed me for losing the book and… Look, I’m going to go. We can talk later.”
I moved to stop him, but stayed silent, watching him as he grabbed his tray, dumped his uneaten food into the trash and left the cafeteria. As he went, I saw Bree approach, an expression of concern on her face and small mountain of food on her tray.
“What’s with him?” she asked, sitting across from me where Vik had been not thirty seconds prior.
I sighed. “A few things. Did you know he’s being tutored by that…” I didn’t feel like she deserved the dignity of being referred to by her surname like a real teacher. Ms. Epistola. She wasn’t a real teacher or a real professor, just a cheap cheerleader Barbie substitute. “That Scarlett lady?”
“Yeah, apparently she knows his parents. He’s totally into that stuff she talks about during class. You know, that stuff that totally has nothing to do with marine biology…”
“I don’t trust her,” I said, scowling at Bree angrily. “And I don’t like that Vik’s spending all this time with her.” A picture of Riley flashed into my mind, and suddenly I remembered why I had been mad at Bree when I sat down. “And I can’t believe you told Riley that I liked him!”
“What’s the big deal?”
“Well it’s not true, for one.”
“Suuuure it isn’t.” Bree took a big bite of her ranch-soaked pizza. I sulked.
“Okay,” she relented. “I’m sorry, I was just… I didn’t think I was out of line, but I’m sorry, okay?”
I continued to sulk, crossing my arms and looking away.
Bree’s face brightened. “Hey, there’s going to be another party tomorrow after school.”
“Not another pool party…”
“Well, we do live in a port town,” reminded Bree, “this one’s on the beach.”
“That’s even worse!”
Bree sighed, exasperated. “You don’t have to go in the water.” A sly smile crept onto her face. “It’s a college party. So no high school idiots to do dumb, idiot things like drag people into pools.”
College party. That somehow sounded even worse. If it wasn’t bad enough to be surrounded by my peers, hollow-headed morons who didn’t even know the name of the original author of my favorite book, which they then proceeded to ruin by dumping me in pools, college guys were their own kind of awful by being intimidating. Judging me for still being in high school, judging the way I looked and how I dressed, assuming I never knew what they were talking about (and they were always wrong).
“C’mon…” said Bree. “It’s going to be wicked awesome, and It’ll get your mind off Riley and Vik.”
My eyes perked up. “You sure Riley won’t be there?”
Bree shrugged. “Not unless he knows the same people I know, which I doubt. He doesn’t seem to know anyone.”
“And you can promise not to invite him?”
“Of course!” said Bree. “I promise.”
Unexpectedly, my heart sank. I wasn’t sure why. I didn’t want to think about him, or Vik, or ‘Ms. Epistola,’ or Vik’s stupid book. In theory, meeting new people, even if they were intimidating, judgmental college kids, would be good for me, right?
So why did it make me feel so low to hear Riley wouldn’t be there?
“Okay,” I said, ignoring the deep sense of foreboding in my heart.
“I’ll go.”