The Seven Kings of Jinn

“I am calling you a manwhore.”

“Ouch. I’m hurt.”

“Yeah, I can really see you’re cut up about it.”

Charlie grinned. “I miss you, Johnson.”

Ari’s heart stopped, a painful halt in beat. “I miss you too.”

He sighed, coming to a stop, eyeing her carefully. “A road trip, huh?”

Her smile widened to a grin that made Charlie’s eyes lighten even more. “Yup.”

“Okay, if it makes you smile like that, I’m in. I haven’t seen that smile in a long time.”

Surprised, Ari attempted a casual shrug as she replied, “I wouldn’t have thought you’d noticed.”

“What? How sad you’ve been lately? I’m stoned, Ari, not blind.”

“Didn’t think there was a difference.”

“Oh, ha-ha, funny,” he threw her earlier words back at her. “So you going to tell me what’s bothering you, or can I guess?”

A rush of overwhelming relief coursed over her at his question. This was Charlie. This was really, really Charlie. “Well, I—”

“Hey, C-man, wait up!” a deep voice cut Ari short. Mel Rickman strolled toward them in his beat up car. He stopped beside them, leaning out of the driver’s side window. “What’s up?”

Charlie nodded tightly at him. “Not much.”

Mel flicked a look at Ari, his eyes traveling up the length of her bare legs, resting on her breasts for a little too long, and then scanning her face with a twisted smile and burning eyes. “What’s up, princess?”

Charlie stepped in front of her, jerking his head toward the school. “Ari, why don’t you go ahead? We’ll catch up at your party.”

Furious at Mel for ruining their moment, for bringing reality crashing down on the remnants of what had once been a wonderful relationship, Ari clenched her jaw. “Why don’t you come with me?”

His eyes narrowed. “Because I don’t want to. I’ll see you later.”

“When?” she snapped, all pretense gone.

He sighed, rubbing a warm hand up and down her now chilly arm. “Your party. Okay?”

She glared at Mel. He just kept smiling stupidly. This was the person Charlie would rather hang out with? Seriously? Ari stepped away from Charlie’s touch. “Whatever.” She shook her head, her disappointment winning. Without looking back, Ari took off, her feet eating up the sidewalk in shovels.

“Ari!”

She stopped. Charlie’s melancholy tone tugged on her heart. Smoothing her features to a placid expression, she spun around. Charlie’s soulful eyes touched her even from so far away. He raised a hand in a forlorn wave and all of her angry resolve melted away. With a small, equally sad smile, Ari waved back and then turned, quickly marching toward the school.

Determined not to be a buzz kill again today, Ari tried to push Charlie out of her thoughts for once, making a mental list of everything she and Rache needed to get for the party on Friday. She was only at dip when a familiar voice brushed her ears, causing her to lose her train of thought. “Hey, Ari.”

Yanked from her daze, Ari stopped in the middle of the school hallway and turned to find Nick Melua standing pretty close. She tried to take a step back without being too obvious. “Hey, Nick.”

“I’m really looking forward to your party on Friday.” His blue eyes washed over her face with a familiar longing that made her want to stuff herself inside her locker and hide.

Nick was a friend of A.J.’s. They were both jocks, although Nick was on the basketball team, not the wrestling team, both nice guys, kind of All-American types. After confiding to A.J. that he’d always had a thing for Ari, A.J. had begun a campaign to get the two of them together at the beginning of senior year. After weeks of pestering, and to get over Charlie, Ari had given in and gone on a couple of dates with Nick. Nick was good-looking, tall, tan, dark hair, blue eyes; he was smart, considerate, nice. But he didn’t make her laugh and he could be kind of immature sometimes. She just didn’t feel that spark with him. According to A.J., Nick was devastated when she’d ended their brief relationship (if you could even call it that). But he put on a good front, always friendly to her. That little spark of longing in his eyes, however, made her uncomfortable.

“I’m glad. It should be great fun.”

He grinned again, shifting his feet, running a hand through his hair. He looked like a guy getting ready to ask a girl out.

Ari’s heart plummeted into her stomach.

“Uh… I got to get to class,” she mumbled and took off, leaving him in the exhaust fumes of her beat up social awkwardness.

They were doing jigsaw puzzles in Art History (all Art History related, of course) and Ari was feeling hot and claustrophobic as the classroom filled with the chatter of seniors and their talk of the future.

“I can’t wait to get to Brown,” Laurie Hollister chirped as Ari squinted at a puzzle piece she’d just inserted. It didn’t look right. She took it out, hunting for another piece of crackled flesh. Their puzzle was the Mona Lisa. “Of course I’ll need to get a new wardrobe and meet my new roommate, but at least I know Staci and A.J. are on the same island as me. It’s a small comfort, right?”