Midnight Disaster ~FINALIST Watty Awards 2012~

Chapter 17 (Revised 4/19/2019)

Cameron stood at the opening of the hallway, and by his stance, I could tell Miles was right behind him.

"Hi, Cameron," Clarissa called to him.

He waved back and still looked uncomfortable. "Hello, Clarissa."

"How are you? Come here! I haven't seen you in a while!" she gushed.

He hesitated in the hall, worry overcoming his features. Clarissa glanced at me for a moment and I locked eyes with her.

"What's wrong with Cameron?" she whispered to me.

I shrugged. "I have no idea," I replied innocently.

"Hmm," she said turning away.

When Clarissa wasn't looking at me anymore, I made a signal to Cameron for him to come forward. He took a deep breath, glanced sideways to Miles, and finally stepped into the kitchen. He stood in front of Clarissa, posture rigid as Miles stepped up to take his place beside him. Clarissa's attention went to Miles immediately.

She stared at him without speaking for such a long time that it felt as if time stood still. At last, her eyes moved to Cameron, but he stared down at the floor in an attempt to avoid eye contact.

"Well, hello," she said to Miles, smile on her ruby red lips.

"Clarissa, this is Miles," Cameron said, pushing Miles forward a bit so that he was better in view for her.

He didn't stay there long, instead, taking a beeline in my direction. When he was beside me, he slipped his hand into mine, his sweaty palm noticeable.

"Well, I'm Clarissa," she said, extending her hand.

He let go of my hand to return the handshake and nodded. Clarissa looked down at his hand as she still clutched it, and she narrowed her eyes as she saw the distinctive darkened tips of his fingers. Miles noticed it too and pulled his hand away from her instantly, burying it deep into one of the pockets in his jeans.

Clarissa continued to stare at him, eyes studying his other hand carefully since he forgotten to hide that one from sight.

"He'll be coming to the party with us," I said, trying to distract her from what she had just seen before she'd have the chance to comment on it.

"Really? That's great; you'll love it for sure," she said in a fake, sweet voice as she continued to stare at him. "There will be a lot of people there and music and oh...like I said you'll just love it."

"That does sound fun," Miles said uncertainly, eyes screaming for help.

"Mm-hmm," she said with that fake smile still on her face.

With Clarissa's back to us, Cameron nudged me gently. "She's getting suspicious," he mouthed.

"What do we do?" I mouthed back.

Cameron let out a breath of air and moved around Clarissa, setting his hand on Miles' shoulder. "We don't want to be late, right?" he said with a nervous laugh and pushed Miles toward the door.

Clarissa looked like she wanted to argue but said nothing. She watched them disappear through the door before she turned to me with narrowed crystal eyes.

"Come on. We don't want them to leave us behind," I said, voice full of fake eagerness as I tried to mirror Cameron's tone, all the while worry sat there like a crystallized rock in my stomach.

Clarissa blinked and set her hand on my shoulder, pausing me mid-motion. "Maya, who is he and why is Cameron acting so funny?" she asked.

"We already told you who he was. Cameron's just eager to get to the party," I lied. "He said he hasn't had much fun in a while, and he loved the whole party idea."

"Hmm, is that right? Well, I've never seen Miles before, where did he come from?" she asked.

"He's a wanderer. He's only staying around here for a little while before he heads out on the road again," I said without turning around. I was scared that she would see the lie on my face.

"And he just happened to turn up during your guys' vanishing act, but he wasn't the reason?"

I swallowed, composed my face the best I could, and turned to look at her. "No, he's not."

"Mm-hmm," she said, not convinced. "One last question for you. Why are his fingertips red?"

"He was eating a blood orange earlier," I lied, finding that the more I did, the easier it became.

"Okay and why is it that he has to come with you two tonight?" she asked. "I didn't invite him too you know."

"He's a...a good friend," I said quickly.

Clarissa raised a skinny eyebrow at me. "Really now?"

"Oh yeah. We're real close," I said hoping that she'd believe me because I was already in too deep with this lie.

"If he's such a good friend to you then how come I've never seen him before?" she asked.

I stared at her, panic full to bursting.

"Well?" she asked.

"I...I..." I stuttered gibberish as I racked my brains desperately to find just one thing that would help me stall her.

"You're keeping something from me I know. Tell me what it is," she demanded, stalking toward me slowly that her glowing eyes seemed to blaze right into my soul.

I was no good at this—this was Cameron's expertise. He surely would've been able to think of something by now, and it was clear that Clarissa wasn't going to let this go until she got an answer.

"Maya," she said, voice sounding hurt and full of disbelief. and her voice had a ring of disbelief to it.

Scuffling at the door broke me from my thoughts, and I looked up to see Cameron. Never before had I been so happy to see him.

"What's taking you?" he asked in that fake eager voice though when he looked at me, his eyes asked the real question he wanted to know—are you okay?

"Who is Miles?" she asked him slowly.

"Clarissa, we just went through this," I said, trying to sound annoyed, as if I had nothing to hide.

Clarissa was unfazed. "Yeah, yeah, good friends, wanderer, etc. I'm just still not understanding why I've never met him before this.

Cameron laughed, set his hands on my shoulders, and led me toward the door. "We'll be the last ones there at this rate," he called over his shoulder to Clarissa who hadn't moved from her spot.

When we made it outside, Cameron let go of me, and I sought out Miles. He stood beside the porch, staring down at the ground as if he was concentrating on something I couldn't see. Cameron grasped my hand, pulling my attention back to him.

"What happened in there?" he asked in a breathy whisper.

"I choked on my tongue, that's what happened," I admitted. "She asked fifty questions about Miles and my brain just froze up. You came in at the nick of time."

Cameron breathed out slowly. "Thank God for small favors, right?" He turned to look at Miles and frowned when he caught sight of the alien's behavior. "Are you okay?"

Miles glanced up at him and his sable eyes flashed in the weak moonlight before he looked down at the ground again. "Yeah," he replied simply after a minute.

Cameron and I exchanged glances as we both could tell that something was clearly wrong. Considering our entire evening so far though, what could be considered to be "right"?

"Come on," Cameron said, leading the way to Clarissa's car.

Cory had grown bored of leaning against the car and had retreated back to the passenger seat. I studied his profile through the window, the boredom that coated his face. When he heard us approach, his eyes swept over all of us, that usual hint of disdain apparent.

Then he spotted Miles, and I had the sickening feeling in my gut that the ordeal with Clarissa a few minutes ago was nothing compared to what we would go through now.