Succubus Happens

Chapter Twelve

All of Mrs. Hathaway’s English classes are on a field trip to the Movie Theater. They’ve set up the snack counter with popcorn and licorice for promotions for the school’s arts program. I didn’t even know North Grove had an arts program. I guess that shows that I haven’t really been paying attention to anything in this school aside from my own life. I feel kind of bad about it, but honestly if it had been any other school, it would have been the same kind of story. I usually kept to myself at the other schools, never had a place I could fit into. It makes sense now that that was always the case, especially now that I know the truth about myself. There’s a lot of things that have changed in the past few months.

Sure, my entire life is a secret now, but that’s something I couldn’t change. I think I was always meant to show up in North Grove at some point. I was always supposed to come find Carter and find out my purpose in life. I know who I am now, and isn’t that what most people are searching for anyway?

Carter tugs on my hand as we walk down the aisle to find our seats. “Do you like this version?” he asks me.

I nod. “It’s one of my favorite movies,” I say. “They follow the play pretty well and the modernization of it makes it fun. What would Will think about it?”

Carter laughs as we sit down. “He wouldn’t really mind. He was excited about it being performed. Though he’d be more excited about the women.”

“Would he now?”

“Yes, he would.”

We turn and I see Mrs. Hathaway sitting behind us with a smile on her face. “Actually, he’d be more excited about it just existing.” she says.

“I may have told her that you knew,” Carter shrugs.

My eyes widen. “I love his work,” I say. “He’s my favorite playwright.”

“He was very talented,” she smiles.

“Was it hard?” I ask her. “Falling in love with a human?”

The smile disappears, but she shakes her head. “It was worth it,” she tells me. “As unfaithful as he was, our love was real. He would always come home to me. I wasn’t faithful either. We had an agreement. We could do anything we wanted as long as we always came home.”

The news shocks me. “Oh,” I say. “That’s…”

The smile is back. “Not what you were expecting, huh?”

“I just…you never mentioned any of this in class,” I tell her.

“Well, it’s my business. Not to mention ancient history,” Mrs. Hathaway says with a laugh. “But to one of his most devoted fans, I feel comfortable sharing.”

“Thank you,” I say with a smile.

“I actually gave her the journal I won off of Will,” Carter says. “She cried.”

“Shut up I did not,” I say, shoving him playfully.

“Just because they didn’t fall does not mean it doesn’t count,” Carter says. He looks at Mrs. Hathaway. “Totally cried.”

She laughs. “That’s amazing that it’s kept up after all of these years. I actually still have his first copy of the play. The one that they were using when they were running it for the first time. Will’s notes are scrawled in the corner dictating his ideas.”

“Are you kidding?” I ask.

“I’ll play you for it,” Carter says.

“Not for sale…or gamble,” Mrs. Hathaway says. “But of course you can come by and look at it. It could use a fresh set of eyes.”

I nod. “Yes, absolutely. I will be there.”

“Good,” Mrs. Hathaway smiles. “I should go check on everyone else, make sure they’re behaving.”

She gets up and leaves and I turn to look at Carter. “I’m so lucky to have you.”

“I know,” Carter grins. He kisses the side of my head. “So…is this movie any good?”

I narrow my eyes at him. “You’ve never seen this?”

“Not this version,” he says with a shrug. “Surprisingly in the past twenty years, this is the first time she’s done Romeo and Juliet.”

“Well, considering you guys repeat high school over and over again it’s good to have some variety in life. You know, other than video games.”

Carter narrows his eyes at me. “I’ll have you know, I have only played video games maybe three times since you’ve moved here.”

I grin and lean over to kiss him. “Yes, I’ve been very distracting,” I tell him.

“The good kind of distracting,” he says with a smile.

“I should hope so,” I say.

He squeezes my hand. “Of course, sunshine.”

The theater gets dark and I rest my head on his shoulder. “All right, moon boy, time to focus.”

“Yes ma’am.”

☽

Carter and I walk out of the theater hand in hand after the movie is over. “I think I preferred it done with swords,” he says. “And horses.”

“Do you have something again guns and cars? I ask him.

“They make things too easy,” he says. “If you’re going to fight someone, do it with a sword or your hands. A bullet is too quick.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Oh really?” I ask.

“Just a personal opinion,” he says. “Otherwise, it was fine. I liked it. I like that they kept the original lines.”

“Showing your true colors, old man,” I say with a laugh.

He glares at me. “Watch it, you.”

Mrs. Hathaway comes out of the theater holding a clipboard. “All right everyone on the bus,” she says. “Time to get back to school.”

Most everyone groans as we ascend onto the bus. Carter and I sit in the middle with Tyler and Jake in front of us and Lily and Knox behind. Jake turns around to face us.

“Do you think that they’ll feed us?” he asks. “I mean, we’ll get back in time for lunch, right?”

“I don’t think they’ll let you starve, Jake,” Carter says. “But if they don’t feed you, there’s always the vending machines.”

“Or I have an apple in my locker,” I say with a shrug.

Jake makes a face. “An apple?”

“Beggars can’t be choosers,” Tyler tells him. “Food is food. I’ll take that apple if you don’t want it.”

“Hell no. That apple is mine,” Jake remarks, turning around to face the front of the bus.

And then the air changes as Alex and Natalie enter the bus. Carter stiffens next to me, his hand tense in mine as they walk past us.

“Boys,” Natalie remarks, wearing a smirk.

I squeeze Carter’s hand, trying to force him to breathe as Alex and Natalie sit at the back of the bus. Once they’re gone, Carter relaxes. Knox reaches forward and touches his shoulder.

“She’s okay, man,” Knox tells him. “We got her.”

Carter nods and looks over at me. “I want so badly to hurt him.”

“I know,” I tell him. “But you can’t give him that satisfaction.”

He leans over and kisses my cheek. “Never.”

“Okay, everyone,” Mrs. Hathaway is standing at the front of the bus. “We’ll get back in time for lunch, yes Jake you’ll be fed, and then back to your scheduled classes. Which means, yes. I will see some of you very soon.”

There are more groans.

“Oh calm down. It’s just one more class,” Mrs. Hathaway grins over in our direction before sitting down.

When we get back to campus, Jake and Tyler take off running to the cafeteria to get their lunch. I glance at Carter and gesture after his brother. “Go on.”

“You sure?” he asks.

“Yeah. I’ll walk with Lily.”

“Okay,” Carter looks over at Knox and then they both take off together.

I loop my arm with Lily’s as we follow them at a much slower pace.

“Got any big plans for summer?” I ask her. I pause. “Do you guys actually celebrate summer?”

She smiles. “Yeah,” she says. “We actually take a trip, a big group of us head to Nysa.”

“Nysa?”

“It’s a town like North Grove, but near a huge lake. The weather is perfect all of the time and it’s full of nymphs.”

I stop in my tracks. “What, like nymphs? Real nymphs?”

Lily grins. “Yes, real nymphs. You’ve experienced the supernatural first hand and yet you’re surprised that Greek mythology is real?”

I shrug. “Not surprised…I know about Geminis, but I mean with nymphs I just didn’t think…”

Lily grins. “I’m just teasing you. Yeah…we don’t see a lot of the creatures from mythology around…they tend to stay near one another. Which is why Nysa is full of them.”

“Why didn’t they stay in Greece?”

“Oh, god, there’s no place for them in Greece anymore. Too many damn tourists with their cameras and such. I mean, a few of them stuck around because it’s the homeland, but a lot of them like to venture out,” Lily says, opening the door the cafeteria.

“Huh,” I say. “Is Nysa strictly Greek, or are there others?”

“It’s mainly Greek. Other than the nymphs there’s a good size population of Harpies, Sirens and a few Muses.”

I grin as I sit down at the table. A tray slides in front of me and I look up to see Carter, already chewing on his burger.

“Thanks,” I say, grabbing my milk to open it.

“Why do you look so happy?” he asks me, looking at Lily. “Why is she so happy?”

“I’m telling her about Nysa,” she says.

“Damn, Lily,” Carter says hitting the table with his fist. “That was going to be a surprise.”

She bites her lip. “Oops. My bad,” she says.

The rest of the boys join us at the table. “What’s your bad?” Knox asks.

“She spilled the beans on Nysa,” Carter explains.

“When are we leaving again?” Jake asks.

“Next week,” Lily answers. “It’ll be our best summer yet.”

“Hell yes!” Tyler says. “I’m so excited about this summer, man. I’m gonna get one of those nymphs to move back with me.”

“What?” I ask, looking at him.

“Tyler has this theory that if he goes enough times, one of the nymphs will fall in love with him and that they’ll live happily ever after,” Jake explains.

“Well, they can’t say no to a soul mate tattoo, can they?” Tyler asks.

“Gross, Tyler,” I say, laughing. “Are you just sleeping your way through them thinking something will show up?”

Tyler grins. “Maybe.”

I shake my head. “Wow…” I say, starting in on my fries. “You are terrible.”

“How do you know who’ve you slept with?” Knox asks. “They’re pretty much identical.”

“That’s where the fun is,” Lily says, gesturing to Tyler. “Right?”

Tyler grins. “See! Someone understands!” He raises his hand to give Lily a high five.

She raises a brow at him. “Just because I understand, doesn’t mean that I approve. You’re still a pig.”

Once she says that, we all start laughing. And we don’t stop for several minutes. This is joy. Pure, unadulterated, joy.

And I’ve literally never felt happier.