The Island Curse

Kieran's Guided Tour

I fell onto my bed, grunting when my backpack slid up and hit the back of my head. It now weighed a hundred pounds more than it did this morning, but I didn't have the energy to take it off. School had always been a place I flourished, but the added stress of being new as well as adapting to an unfamiliar curriculum had drained me. The only bonus was that the school had a no homework policy, but that also meant the hours in class were nonstop.

Groaning, I sat up and brushed a loose strand of hair out of my eyes. Boxes and clothes mocked me from their places on the floor, but I knew I wouldn't be tackling any of it until the weekend. If I didn't know myself well enough to know that a nap would turn into me not waking until the morning, I would lie back down and go to sleep.

The soft down comforter and pillows beckoned me, but I shimmied out of my uniform and dragged on a pair of leggings and an oversized sweatshirt. The pull to go up to the tower had returned in full force the moment I came home, but I pushed it away, determined to explore the world outside my window. I grabbed my phone, worthless for calling until we made it to a cell store, but necessary for photos and music and hurried down the stairs.

"It's like it chose her," my father said when I came down stairs. He wasn't speaking to me.

I paused. His phone shouldn't be working, and I hadn't seen a house phone yet. Did we have company?

"I know it's hard, but it's what we've hoped for." The female speaker's voice was as clear as my father's, answering my question.

"She's my little-"

"Eavesdropping?" I yelped and spun around. Kieran Murphy was propped against the entryway to the parlor, the same smirk from earlier pasted on his face.

"This is my house. What are you doing lurking in it?"

"Lurking? Who says lurking anymore?"

"Why waste a perfectly good word when it fits the situation?"

"Yer a strange lass, Isla Halloran."

"Says the boy randomly standing in a stranger's home."

"But yer not strangers, are you? Yer part of Merrow Island."

"Yes, well, I was born in Mississippi, but that doesn't mean that I'm familiar with every other person in the state. Because, by definition, that's what it means to be a stranger- someone you're not familiar with."

He pushed off the frame and walked close enough that I could smell the light, fresh fragrance of his cologne. Unlike most boys his age, he hadn't bathed in it, and it swirled around me in a fog that clouded my mind as he bent forward to whisper. "Perhaps that's why I'm here. To become acquainted."

"Ah, there you are," Dad said, stepping into the entryway, his eyes locking onto the small space between our bodies. Siobhan appeared behind him, a line of worry creasing her forehead when she saw us.

"Kieran, I told you to wait outside." Her sharp tone was at odds with the cheerful woman I'd met just a few days ago.

"I wanted to make sure Isla had a good day at school. We didn't have time to talk before she left."

"It's fine," I insisted. "In fact, you two seemed to be talking about something important, and I was about to go outside and explore. Kieran can be my guide." Isla what the hell are you doing?

I didn't dare sneak a peek at the boy beside me. What if he didn't want to spend his afternoon with me? My dad looked at Siobhan and she sighed before nodding. "It's best that you don't wander around alone, I suppose. Kieran, you know what time you have to come home."