We both turned to Julian, and Mady shook her head before turning back to me. “Julian’s always like that.”
“You know each other personally?”
I looked back and forth between the two of them, and Julian put the hammer aside to wipe his face on his shirt. As he did, I caught a glimpse of his defined abs.
Embarrassed, I looked away, back at Mady, who grinned knowingly at me.
“Unfortunately.” She rolled her eyes. “We went to Blairville High, even in the same class.” She pointed to Julian. “That right there is the embodiment of loner.”
Julian snorted and raised both brows before nodding at Mady. “And that one is the Sunshine Girl.”
I looked at her questioningly. Mady just smiled, shaking her head. “Everyone has their reputation here.” Then she looked at her watch. “Anyway, I have to get going.”
I nodded in understanding.
“Of course.”
She winked at me, tossed her hair over her shoulder, and literally danced down the porch past Julian, whom she stuck her tongue out at.
Something told me she and Larissa would get along perfectly.
“You have mail, by the way.”
I looked over at Julian, who was holding up two letters.
Annoyed by the fact that he couldn’t have just left them in the mailbox, I stomped down the porch through the demolished front yard.
But I didn’t get far.
Something hard flew into me, and with a terrified scream, I tumbled backward into the nearest bush, where I landed ungently on scratchy branches.
“Ouch...” I groaned in pain, and when I felt something sharp on my belly and wanted to check if I had hurt myself, a bloodcurdling scream escaped me.
On my belly sat a freaking raven!
The animal was frightened as violently as I was and shot up, its claws once again digging nicely into my belly.
“Ah!” It escaped me and I jumped up, out of the bush.
A mistake. Because I crashed right into Julian, who immediately grabbed my arms to keep me from falling down another time.
The warmth of his hands on my elbows didn’t make it easy to look away. Instead, my gaze fell on his olive-green eyes.
“Are you okay?” he asked with a strangely concerned undertone, and only now did I realize how close he was to me.
“A raven... attacked me,” I gasped and stepped back, looking around in confusion for the creature and spotting three more pitch black birds in the road.
“Did you get hurt?”
I looked back at Julian, following his gaze to my T-shirt, which was tattered at my stomach.
Without hesitation, I pulled it up at the spot and discovered three bright red scratches next to my belly button.
Julian stepped closer, and immediately, I pulled the t-shirt back down.
“It’s okay...”, I said hastily and sped around, hurrying back to the porch.
The last thing I needed was Julian feeling sorry for me just because some stupid bird had run me over.
“Bayla?” I wheeled around and looked at Julian, who was holding up white paper. “The mail.”
Cursing softly, I hurried back, snatched the mail from his hands, and returned to the front door.
Only now did I notice Julian staring at me with that ridiculous grin. I rolled my eyes and pulled the front door shut.
I hadn’t run into the neighbors again today.
But the noise in the garden had reminded me of their presence, and I had given up trying to read anything. It had been too loud for that. What on earth were they doing with the garden fence? Were they dancing on it?
I finally used the time to tidy my room and sort my books into the shelf Mum had gifted me today, along with three new releases by Ana Huang. Organized by genre, I sorted my books.
Mr. Bardot had gifted me a history book about Blairville.
Since I didn’t like it when people gave me something for my birthday, I wanted to at least flip through the book, even if it was about this boring hick town. Otherwise, I felt rude.
I reached for the next book, my hands hitting crumpled wrapping paper.
Why...
