Starcrossed

of all, Lucas and I never even met before that day in the hallway, let alone slept together. Secondly, I would have told you if I’d even kissed another boy since the disaster with Matt in the closet in seventh grade. Third, and probably most important, I was never as close to Gretchen as I am to you. You’re my best friend, Gig.” Helen squeezed her until Claire gave in and smiled. “I’ve been strange lately, I know it, and I’m really sorry. Some weird stuff is going on with me. I want to tell you everything about it, but I can’t because I don’t understand it yet. So please, please just stay on my side, even if I am angry and miserable all the time.”
    “You know I’m always on your side, but do you want me to be completely honest?” Claire stopped again and turned to face Helen. “I know I’m supposed to say that this is nothing, and that it will all work itself out, and feed you all that supportive nonsense, but I can’t. I don’t think this is going to get better on its own, and I’m worried about you.”
    After track practice, Helen went to hold down the store. She had offered to give Luis the night off so that his marathon weekend manning the store while Kate and Jerry were in Boston would start on a full night’s rest.
    Customers were still looking at her funny as news of her meltdown made its way to every year-rounder on the island, but she had too much to do to get bent out of shape about it. By the time she was done cleaning and setting everything up for Luis in the morning it was after midnight.
    There was a moment while she was locking up and walking to the Pig when she was alert and listening for danger, but it passed by the time she was backing out and on her way home. She had been cautious, but that didn’t matter. It was after she had parked in her driveway and was walking toward her house that she got jumped.
    The first thing she felt was gratitude. At least the Delos clan had waited until Jerry was safely out of the way before they came to kill her. A wiry arm wrapped around her neck, simultaneously pulling back and pressing down until Helen fell to her knees. Her breath was cut off, and she was bent forward in such a way that she could see nothing of the person behind her. She wondered who had won that whole “she’s mine” argument, Lucas or Hector? White and blue blobs bloomed across her field of vision from lack of oxygen. Then she pictured her dad coming home to find her dead body in the driveway, and she knew that no matter how outnumbered she might be, she had to fight back. She couldn’t let him lose another person he loved. He’d never get over it.
    Helen crooked her arm and rammed her elbow into her attacker’s solar plexus with every bit of juice she had in her tank. She heard the person suck wind and then she felt herself get dropped. The heels of her hands scraped against the ground as she stopped her forward momentum. She took two deep breaths before she looked up, surprised that one of the others hadn’t jumped in to secure her.
    Lucas stared down at her, his right arm thrown out and gripping Hector by the shirt. Strangely, Hector was looking over his shoulder—away from Helen. She barely had time to register that fact before Lucas spoke. As he did the Furies began wailing behind him. Helen wondered why it had taken this long for them to show up, but she didn’t have a chance to dwell on it.
    “Jason! Ariadne! Bring her back alive,” he commanded, stressing the word alive as he looked pointedly at Hector. The twins took off in the same direction Hector had been looking. Helen took that moment to jump up and run for her life.
    She had never tried to run at full speed before. She’d always known that if she did she would discover every nightmare she had ever had about herself was true. Monster , freak , animal , witch : all of the names she had whispered to herself when she did something impossible would come gushing to the surface if she ever let herself loose. But when she heard Hector snarl her name she didn’t think about what it would mean, or how it would feel, to run as fast as she could. She just did it.
    Something led her out onto the moors. The dark, flat lands that stretched out under the color-bleaching light of the moon were somehow safer than the roads and the houses of her community. If she was going to die, it would be alone, with no weak normals sacrificing themselves to save poor Helen Hamilton, their lifelong neighbor and