1
Jacque Pierce sat in the window seat of her bedroom looking across the street at her neighbors’ house. The golden light from the moon cascaded across the lawn, casting long shadows from the trees. The night was silent other than the sounds of crickets and the rustling of the leaves. I’m not being nosy, just curious. “Yeah”— she snorted—“because it’s only curiosity that would have me sitting with my eyes glued to someone else’s house like some pervert preteen getting a glimpse of his first girly bits. But, whatevs’. I can deal with my dirty little conscience tomorrow.”
The Henrys were hosting a foreign exchange student this year. According to Mrs. Henry, he was due any minute. Jacque had promised Sally and Jen she would get deets on the situation and call her friends with an update. She wasn’t about to let them down because of some little pre-stalking jitters.
So here she sat, scoping out the Henrys’ house, with her bedroom lights off and the blinds cracked just enough to see out into the night. And to top off her James Bond experience, she even had binoculars. Jacque was nothing if not thorough. Now, she just needed a little bit of spy music playing in the background and she would be totally golden. She’d been sitting there for an hour already and was just about to give up when a black limo pulled to the curb.
Interesting.
Jacque wondered why a foreign exchange student would travel from the airport in a limo.
Daddy must have money.
She put the binoculars to her face and adjusted them, giving her a clearer view. She settled her focus on the rear passenger door. Maybe the binoculars were a bit much but, honestly. She could see without them. But, in a town with a population of only seven hundred people, there just wasn’t a whole lot of excitement, and a girl had to take her kicks where she could get them.
The driver climbed out of the limo and headed around to the rear passenger door, but it opened before he could get there.
“Well…” She released the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “Slap me stupid and call me silly.” Jacque licked her lips as her eyes wandered over the long drink of water that emerged from the car. She could easily see through her binoculars the boy was well over six feet tall. His hair was jet black, longer on top with bangs that fell across his face, sweeping to the left and partially covering that eye. He had broad shoulders and, from what she could see of his profile, high cheekbones, a straight nose, and full lips. She realized her mouth had dropped open, and she was all but drooling.
I should so be ashamed. She tilted her head to the other side as if that would give her a better view. But I can’t be because I would be stupid to miss seeing that. She groaned inwardly as she watched him stretch his arms over his head and move his head side to side as though working out kinks in his neck.
“Come to mama, foreign boy,” Jacque whispered. “I’ll take care of those kinks.” Yes, she really should be ashamed of that comment. She laughed quietly as if the two men across the road could somehow hear her.
Jacque watched as he and his driver conversed. She got the impression of stiffness and formality until the driver suddenly hugged the boy with obvious deep affection.
Odd, wonder if they’re related or something.
Suddenly, the boy turned as if he had heard what she was thinking and looked straight at her window. Straight at her. Jacque froze, unable to look away from the mesmerizing blue eyes that held her in place. All her thoughts seemed to fade into the distance and she heard, or thought she heard, she wasn’t quite sure which, the words, “At last, my Jacquelyn.” Jacque shook her head, trying to clear the sudden fog that filled her mind. Her eyes still pressed into the binoculars, roamed over the features of the male specimen that had her undivided attention.
She had been right about the cheekbones, nose, and lips. What she wasn’t prepared for was how his crystal blue eyes seemed to almost glow in the moonlight. The hair that fell across his forehead and over his left eye only added to his mysteriousness. Overall, he had a very masculine, beautiful face. The black shirt he was wearing fit closely to his form and showed off a muscular chest and flat stomach. He wore a black leather biker jacket, but past that, she couldn’t see because the car blocked her view. She imagined his legs were every bit as nice as the rest of him. She pulled back from the window, attempting to catch her breath.
“Holy bonanza, Batman,” Jacque said as she set the binoculars down. Her hands were shaking. She rubbed them together as if they were cold, though she was pretty sure the temperature in her room had risen several degrees, and at any moment she would need to start discarding clothing to keep from having a heatstroke.
When she looked back at the street the mysterious guy was walking into the Henrys’ house. As the door closed, she heard the voice again say, “Soon.”
Jacque sat there for a few minutes trying to get her brain back online. Like a computer that had suddenly crashed, she found herself having to reboot.
Hearing on? Check. Eyes no longer bugging out of my head? Check. Mouth no longer dripping saliva? Check. Heart not attempting to climb out of my throat? Check. She mentally ticked things off. After several deep breaths, she picked up the phone and dialed Jen’s number.
Three rings later, Jen answered. “What’s the word?”
Jacque took a slow breath and said, “I think you better come over.”
“I’m there, chick. See ya in five,” Jen responded and then hung up.
Jacque grinned as she thought about how great it was to have a friend like Jen whom you could always depend on to be there when you needed her.
Jacque picked up the phone again and called Sally, who answered after one ring. She must have been diligently manning the phone waiting for Jacque to call with details to the latest small-town drama.
“Jen is on her way over,” Jacque said. “I need you to come too. We need to talk.”
“Okay,” was all Sally said before she hung up.
Fifteen minutes later, the three friends were gathered on Jacque’s bedroom floor, hot chocolate in hand, naturally, because how can you have a girl powwow without hot chocolate?
“So, fill it and spill it,” Jen said.
“Okay,” Jacque said taking a deep breath, “so I’m sitting in my window seat, shades cracked, lights off, binoculars in hand…”
Sally interrupted. “Binoculars? Really? You were honestly using binoculars?”
“Well, you said you wanted details, so I was gathering you details,” Jacque defended.
“Oooh, did you have the Mission Impossible soundtrack playing in the background? Cuz that would have been spy-tastic,” Jen said enthusiastically.
“Actually,” Jacque said, “I was thinking more James Bond-ish. You know, with the whole stakeout thing…”
“No, uh-uh, that would be more like Dog the Bounty Hunter type stuff. But you couldn’t be Beth ’cause you’re not stacked enough on top, so you would have to be Baby Lisa, the daughter.” Jen rattled on.
“Are you really comparing me to Dog the Bounty Hunter’s daughter right now? And why are we talking about this anyway because it is sooooo NOT the point!” Jacque growled in frustration.
“Spy analogies aside, I was sitting there about an hour when, finally, a black limo pulls up to the curb in front of the Henrys’ house.”
“A limo? What foreign exchange student shows up in a limo?” Jen asked.
“I know, right? That’s what I was thinking,” Jacque stated. “I assure you the limo was of no consequence once the person inside stepped out. Ladies, I saw the most gorgeous guy to ever grace my line of sight.”
“When you say gorgeous,” Jen started, “are we talking Brad-Pitt-boyish good looks or Johnny-Depp-make-ya-want-to-slap-somebody?”
“No, we’re talking Brad and Johnny need to bow down and recognize,” Jacque answered.
“Aside from him being dropped off in a limo, and besides the fact that he is a walking Calvin Klein ad, it begins to get strange at this point in our story, boys and girls,” Jacque says in a spooky narrative voice.
“Like it wasn’t strange already?” Sally asked.
“Well, okay, stranger. Just as he is about to walk up the path, he suddenly turns and looks straight at me, right into my eyes, like he could sense I was watching him. I literally couldn’t move. It was like I was mesmerized by him or something. Man, when did I start using the word like so freaking much?” Jacque said in exasperation. “So, up until now it was strange, but at this point, we are entering the world of what the hell. As he is staring at me, I hear a voice in my head, and it says, ‘At last, my Jacquelyn,’ then he turns to go in the house, and I hear the voice again say, ‘Soon.’”
Jacque stared expectantly at her two best friends, waiting for them to tell her she’s finally jumped off the deep end, but they just looked at her. “Well?” Jacque asks. Finally, Jen shifted while sucking in a deep breath. She looked down at her empty hot chocolate mug, and said, “We’re gonna need more hot chocolate.”
“Agreed,” Sally and Jacque said at the same time.
Once they each had three fresh mugs of hot chocolate and Oreo cookies Jen said, “So let me see if I’m catching what you’re throwing. Hottie exchange student drives up in a limo, steps out, rocks your world, looks into your eyes, and speaks to you in your head? Am I getting the gist of it here?”
Jacque nodded her head sheepishly, looking at the floor. “I mean, I guess it was his voice in my head. It could be a long-lost dead relative who’s been searching for me since they died and happened to find me the moment that hottie looked into my eyes.”
Jen and Sally both gave Jacque their get-a-larger-spoon-if-you’re-going-to-shovel-it-in-that-big look.
“What? “I’m just saying,” Jacque threw her hands up in frustration before flopping back onto the floor. She groaned loudly and covered her eyes with the back of her hand. “Am I going crazy, y’all?”
“No sweetie, you’ve been gone a long time now. We just didn’t want you to know we knew,” Sally said with a smile.
“Seriously, I know it sounds crazy, but I promise you guys I heard a voice. A beautiful, deep, masculine voice in my head … and it knew my name! That is crazy, jacked-up, put-her-in-a straight-jacket, totally insane!” Jacque looked at them both with fear in her eyes. She truly did wonder if she had finally cracked. There were, after all, people in her family of questionable sanity, her mother being one of them. Jacque loved her mom, and they had a good relationship, but the woman didn’t always have her feet firmly planted on the ground. And Jacque couldn’t vouch for her father’s mental state. He wasn’t in the picture and never had been. He had bailed before he had ever known Jacque’s mom was pregnant. Thankfully, Jacque had two best friends who kept her head out of the clouds, which is why she so fervently sought their opinion on this matter.
Sally finally spoke up. “I don’t think you’re crazy, Jac. Really, you’re not. There has to be some sort of explanation. We’ll figure it out. We always do.”
“Yeah,” Jen added. “It’s two weeks until school starts. From now until then we are on scout detail.” Sally nodded her agreement.
The three were quiet for a few minutes, each pondering ways to “run into” the new exchange student without seeming too obvious. Jen was laying on the floor looking up at the ceiling fan when she said, “We need to find a way to introduce ourselves to him so that we can each get a good look and see if Sally or I hear a voice in our head.”
“My mom was planning on taking over a good ol’ Southern meal for him since he isn’t from here. You know how she feels it’s her duty to feed up anyone who comes within a five-mile radius of her. We could ask if we can go over with her, or would that be too lame?” Jacque asked.
“No, I think that’s perfect,” Jen stated.
By midnight, the girls had crafted an, admittedly, weak game plan, the whole of it revolving around going with Jacque’s mom to the Henry’s to give their new exchange student some fried chicken, ’taters, and corn on the cob. Seriously, how lame can you get? Jen and Sally had quickly fallen asleep on the other side of her room, each wrapped in a blanket.
Jacque sat up and looked around her room, a place she felt safe and comfortable. The twin-size bed with the new deep green bedspread her mom had bought for her birthday and the stained-glass lamp with absolutely no theme whatsoever that sat on her small wood desk where she, Sally, and Jen had carved various things on its surface. Jacque looked at her dresser mirror which had pictures lining both sides, mostly of Jen, Sally, and her in various places and poses. A few hours ago, I was just another seventeen-year-old getting ready to start my senior year … so normal.
She had three homecoming mums hanging on the wall next to her bed, and on the other side was the window with the seat where she sat tonight, where something in her life—she wasn’t quite sure of what just yet—had changed. Jacque lay back down and watched her ceiling fan go around in a circle, the motor lulling her to sleep. Her last thought as she drifted off was of a pair of piercing blue eyes.