Devils Roses 01 - Cursed

marry. Your sister is not the marrying type, she's like the spring break type.”
    I gulped at him saying marriage and my name in the same sentence, but then translated his whole speech and frowned a little. His little rant was not meant to hurt my feelings, but being told I wasn’t sexy was a little hurtful. It hurt, even though I have always believed sexy was not something teenage girls should ever strive for.
    He shook his head and fiddled with the things on the table. “I’m sorry I shouldn’t say such bad things about her, she is your sister.”
    “ I have no illusions about my sister Shane; she is exactly who she is. She burns through men. She has no self-respect and even less for anyone else. She is always attracted to the things she can’t have.”
    “ Great, speak of the devil and she shall arrive at your favorite burger joint.”
    I turned to see my sister and Blake walking hand in hand. They stopped dead as they saw Shane and I sitting at the table. Our food arrived as the waitress brought them to the seat behind us. Blake dropped her hand and straightened up in his stance, not letting his gaze leave mine. It was as if he was trying to reassure me.
    Alise smiled sweetly. “Fancy meeting you two here.” She looked back and forth between us suspiciously. "On a date?" Her words were sarcastic and biting.
    I ignored it and muttered, “We went to see Wade.”
    Blake looked nervous but tried to remain calm. “The elusive Wade—what did he have to say about the party?” He kept his gaze on me as if we were the only people in the room. I avoided him. I was still angry with him and not in the mood to discuss it in a diner.
    Shane shook his head. “It’s not the right guy. She didn’t recognize Wade at all.”
    It was tense. Every voice was filled with some kind of savage emotion.
    “ Can we just sit with you?” Alise asked innocently.
    “ No. Let’s just go somewhere else, Alise.” Blake wasn’t pleading, he was telling. He pulled her back toward the entrance. “Enjoy your meal,” he said, dragging her out onto the street.
    I sighed and picked up my juicy veggie burger and smiled at Shane. “Bon Appetite.”
    He tried to smile, but his anger was obvious.
    I took the biggest bite I could. The tastes started to swirl in my mouth, the flavor was so similar. I hated the taste. I started to feel like I was going to throw up. My favorite veggie burger in the world was making me sick. I grabbed my napkin and spit the huge bite into it.
    “ I’m so sorry Shane, I don’t usually spit out food, but it tastes exactly like my vomit the other night. I had a veggie burger for dinner that night before the party.”
    His eyes lit up. “You remember the taste of your puke!”
    I realized what I had said and indeed some memory had come back. “Alise did my hair and makeup and made me wear the outfit I was wearing. I ate the veggie burger in secret in my room, so she wouldn’t know I ate. My dad had picked it up for me when he picked up his pizza.”
    He clapped. “Yes, see some of it is coming back.”
    I was excited, except for the fact veggie burgers were going to be off the menu for quite a while.
    Shane took me home after I stopped picking at my fries. I dragged myself up the stairs, half dead I was certain. My body ached. My liver pains were unbearable. I climbed into my bed and fell asleep with my clothes on.
    The warm wind came again. His voice crept through my dreams.
    "Get better, Aimee. Get better and forget about me."

Chapter Four
    The word is hamtard…

    I felt my phone vibrate in my jacket pocket, as I was trudging my way to chemistry the next day. I would never dread chem, but an hour sitting next to one of the biggest frauds on earth was hard to stomach. Blake had pretended nothing was going on with my sister. They both swore nothing was going on.
    I hadn’t really spoken to my sister since the incident, but I knew that I had been taken by one of the best grifters in the world. She was a pro con artist, from not wanting to do chores to juggling four boyfriends.
    Trying to think on other things, I thought about how I needed to see the 'not Wade' guy again. He was plaguing my dreams. I had become convinced he was a ghost, who I could only see when I was near Shane’s house or sleeping. I didn’t believe in ghosts at all, but even I had to admit it was odd, that the only times I had seen him were at Shane's. I knew I was just scaring myself with the shaman ghost story I had cooked up