Starbright (The Starbright Series) by Rachel Higginson Page A

advantage of the whole no-homework thing.” His dark green eyes reminded me of the color of grass at night and they blazed with an intensity I had seen before, an intensity that remained between us even before Seth showed up. He dipped his head, and waited for my response.
    I could feel Seth’s eyes on us and couldn’t stop my self from repeating in a low , careful voice, “Tristan, what are you doing?”
    “What do you mean?” He picked his head back up and blinked his eyes like a confused puppy dog.
    Which reminded me , “You are not a dog and I am not a tree. This is so not going to work,” I lifted my hands to his chest bare chest and pushed him back. His hands clasped down on mine and held them to him.
    “I know that, Stella,” he all but growled.
    My eyes flicked to Seth who stood there bouncing on the back of his heels, his jaw clenched tight and the glow under his skin burning like hot embers in a building fire.
    “You know that I love you, don’t you?” I turned my eyes back to Tristan and softened my tone.
    “No, I don’t know that,” Tristan complained, it was his usual response whenever I confessed my platonic love for him.
    Even if he didn’t want to hear the truth in my words, I knew I had gotten through to him, that it would only take a few seconds before reality set in. I had always been Tristan’s, ever since they were little. Other boys didn’t ask me out, everyone in our small town ac cepted whatever was between us w as marriage material, even though we both knew there was nothing. There could never be anything. And so, I waited for his expression to relax and his testosterone level to drop before I continued.
    “I’ll text you later, but I don’t think I’ll be able to do anything tonight. My parents are getting back later and we have to have the whole, ‘what happens now’ talk,” I sighed, afraid of the future conve rsation and the consequences it would have on my life.
    “Oh that’s right,” Tristan laughed. “I almost forgot the future of mankind now rests on your shoulders.” He released my hands and pulled me into a completely friendly , but disgustingly sweaty hug. I laughed against his chest, thankful he could take everything in stride. “But you’ll text me later?”
    “Yes,” I agreed. “Now get off of me, you’re so gross!”
    Tristan let go of me and we gathered ou r warm ups to slip on before crawling back through the locker room window and out into the late winter afternoon. Seth stayed silent until the two of us were alone again in the beat up Jeep that still needed to get them home.
    “I don’t think I like him,” Seth admitted as he watched Tristan’s big white pickup pull out of the parking lot.
    “I don’t know where I went wrong,” I sighed . “I was sure you two would be best friends.”
    Seth laughed too at that, a deep, throaty laughed that made me smile even wider. “It probably has something to do with that pretty blonde head of yours.”
    Knowing he was right, but not wanting to admit it, I threw my arm out to smack Seth in the chest. He reached up to block me , and nearly dropped the door that he still held firmly in place next to him, since it no longer stayed connected to the vehicle. We both started laughing and what blossomed between us was more than a new friendship, but a well-rooted trust that was solidly planted in the base of ou r souls. We were partners now; this world needed us both if it was to survive. And likewise, we needed each other if we hoped for the same fate.

Chapter Five
     
                  My parents were already home and sitting at the kitchen table with Jupiter when Seth and I walked through the back door. The early sunset left the outside world dark by the time we drove home and I couldn’t help but feel chills of the Darkness nearby. I convinced my self that since Seth seemed unbothered, they were in my imagination and nothing more. I had been shaken up the night before, and that’s