The Boy on the Bridge

It’s pretty, but I don’t entirely understand it. M for Milner? Why the tail? None of this seems anything like Anderson’s style, and I’m totally thrown by it.

As confused as I am, Mom asks, “What’s that?”

“Um… a devious letter?” I say, baffled.

“It’s the Scorpio zodiac sign,” Ray states.

Mom looks back at him. “It is? Why do you know that?”

“Because I’m a Scorpio.” He reaches over and grabs the note off the counter. Reading it causes his scowl to deepen.

“Why did I not know that?” Mom asks.

“I don’t know.” Ray looks back at me. “When’s Anderson’s birthday?”

“I have no idea.”

“Hm.” Ray drops the note on the counter. “Well, looks like you’ve attracted the attention of a Scorpio. That was a bad idea. We don’t fall in love often, but when we do...”

He leaves it hanging there with both me and Mom staring at him, waiting for him to finish. “When you do?” I demand impatiently, eyes wide.

Ray glances at my mom before looking back at me. “We lock on to someone hard enough and that’s it; you’re ours.”

Mom’s eyes were already wide, but now she shakes her head in mild disbelief. “Oh my God, you believe in astrology? I’m learning so many new things about you right now.”

Ray’s lips curve up faintly. “Not really, but I can’t deny a lot of the supposed traits we carry are accurate—at least, they are for me.”

“I am a rational woman, I need facts to back this up,” Mom states.

“Whatever we set our minds to, we achieve. We’re deeply loyal, incredibly magnetic, more than a little possessive, and intensely sexual.”

Her eyes widen in mildly scandalized amusement. “Okay, I’m convinced.” She looks back at me. “Also, you should dump Anderson. He sounds like trouble.”

I can’t help smiling at her faulty logic. “Oh, sure—trouble for me, but good for you.”

“I’m an adult, I can handle it. You’re my tiny sweet baby and no one should ever gaze upon you with lust.”

I roll my eyes, abandoning the necklace and the flowers and going over to retrieve my coffee. “I don’t know who’s crazier, you or Anderson.”

___

I sigh, looking ahead at the swarm of high schoolers crowded around the entry doors as I approach. They’re all off in their little groups, chattering away.

Normally when I pass people by, it’s as if I’m a ghost. The air around them might shift, but not so much as one glance turns in my direction. Hunter turned me invisible when he left, and somehow even in his absence, his word is law.

If anything, his influence here has actually intensified. It’s not like I’ve kept tabs on him, so I don’t know everything Hunter has been up to in Italy, but news of some of his exploits made it back here. It was impossible not to pick up tidbits from his fan club.

His “big deal” father has a whole slew of businesses, and one of them is a clothing line. Hunter has always been good-looking, but now that he’s grown up, he crossed the threshold to immensely sexy. His father must have shrewdly decided—bastard or not—he was going to capitalize on it.

The girls at Hawthorne High went absolutely crazy when Hunter started showing up on the company’s Instagram feed modeling shirts. Well, he’s not even wearing one in half the shots, but supposedly that’s what the pictures are supposed to be selling. And at least here, it was effective. After Hunter’s first campaign, a bunch of the girls at our school ordered the shirts for themselves and it became a full-on fashion wave for a good couple of months.

That was when he started getting tagged in photos with models and splashed across Italian tabloids. I can’t read any of them, but there’s always some new girl in each picture, so I can guess what they’re about.

Today as I open the door to head inside the school, there’s something different in the air that I can’t quite put my finger on. People are talking a little faster with more excitement on their faces.

I guess it’s because it’s the first day of senior year. I guess for some people that’s exciting.

For me, it just means I’m one day closer to never having to walk through these doors again. If I’m a ghost, my unfinished business is that much closer to being wrapped up and tucked away so I can finally have my freedom.

There are a couple of things I’m genuinely looking forward to today, but the conversation I’m about to have with Anderson does not make the list.

I liked Anderson or I wouldn’t have gone out with him to begin with (even if he is technically my only option), but he came on way too strong this morning and I’m finding myself a little turned off by it.

Anderson is a nice guy and I would never have pegged him for the “I own you” type. There might be guys in the world who can pull that kind of shit off, but Anderson is damn sure not one of them. I’m closer to dumping him (if it would even be called that, so early on) than wearing the necklace he had delivered to my house like a psycho.