The Covenant by B.N. (best authors to read .TXT) 📕

curtains and comforters to match. She didn’t even particularly like the color blue but then again she didn’t particularly like any color. Delilah’s phone went off loudly, causing her to flinch. She got off her bed and retrieved her phone. “Hello” she answered. “What are we doing this weekend?” Tess asked, not bothering to greet Delilah properly. “Nothing” but she sounded unsure like it was a question. “We should go to the movies…Vince asked me to go with him and you know how my parents are…I need a chaperone” Tess admitted. Delilah smacked her forehead with the palm of her free hand. “I don’t know…” she mumbled. “Please, I’ll pay for you and your food” Tess begged. Delilah hated when Tess did this to her. She always made her a third wheel or sometimes worse, like the time when Tess’s date brought his friend…that night had been horrible and very awkward. Delilah groaned. She could never seem to say no to Tess. “Fine, but don’t you think Pepper will be mad when he finds out you’ve been seeing other guys?” Delilah teased. “Umm…Pepper…I’ll have to find the right time to strike him” Tess said, thinking out loud. Delilah laughed. “You make yourself sound like a snake” she told Tess. “Hmm…do you think he likes snakes? I bet he does…” Tess’s words trailed off. “Goodnight Tess” Delilah said after a minute of silence passed. “Tell Josh I said sweet dreams” Tess said then hung up. Delilah laughed. Tess had always had a crush on her brother and she found it funny while he found it disturbing. She went to bed soon after that.
Chapter two
Delilah struggled to pay attention to Tess as she ranted about the school’s lunch. Delilah was feeling a little groggy and had had a hard time paying attention to much of anything all day. She hadn’t gotten much sleep for the past few days and it was affecting her attention span. She tried to think of what was waking her up at night and couldn’t think of anything in particular. All she knew was that she would jump awake from her sleep and was unable to fall back. She doubted she had had any nightmares, she would remember.
In fact, she had been having a dreamless sleep for the past few nights. Maybe stress? She wondered. “Did you hear me?” Tess asked, waving a miniature carrot stick in her face. “Umm…what did you say?” she asked, staring up at Tess. Tess sighed. “I said that it looks like it’s just you and me going to the movies… Vince is a total ass” Tess sounded aggravated from having to repeat her self. “What happened?” she asked. Tess gave Delilah a concerned look. “Are you ok? You’ve been acting weird lately…I like just told you everything that happened between me and Vince, is there something you need to tell me?” Tess asked being overly dramatic like she always was. “No…I just haven’t been getting much sleep” Delilah explained. “Oh no, don’t tell me that you’re on drugs…or worse, are you prostituting after school?” Tess joked with a straight face. Delilah laughed, almost spitting her tea all over herself. “Me? Prostituting? You’re funny” Delilah grinned. Just then someone took the empty seat next to her. “How much you charge?” someone taunted. Delilah turned in her seat to find Pepper smirking. Her eyes widened with embarrassment and her olive toned face reddened. Tess responded before Delilah could. “Sorry, she just told me she’s getting out of the business” Tess shrugged. Delilah stared over at Tess. She grinned. “Too bad” Pepper’s rosy lips pulled upward into a smile but his smoky gray eyes seemed to be holding agitation, from what she had no clue. Until she noticed him eye Tess and an impatient expression came upon his face. Delilah gave him a look, communicating with her eyes, asking what his problem was. To her surprise his smile returned and he winked. She looked away as he stood and walked off without another word.
“He is totally into you!” Tess shrieked as she watched him disappear into the lunch crowd. Delilah flushed and averted her eyes, staring at the monstrosity the lunch ladies called lasagna. “Don’t say that” she mumbled, feeling uncomfortable. “I guess you can have him…I still have Josh to fall back on…but there’s just something about a bad boy that gets my blood rushing” she then sighed heavily at the loss of something that hadn’t even been hers. “Sorry to let you down again but Josh isn’t interested and he’s too old for you” Delilah said, hoping to change the subject. “Twenty-one is not that old and he is interested…he’s just playing hard to get” Tess said with the flip of her golden brown hair. Delilah sighed. Tess was dead serious and Delilah knew it.
Ever since Pepper’s first day at Keller High, Delilah had ignored him which seemed to make things worse. She felt he was determined, why and for what, she didn’t know but she knew something was strange about him. That’s why she didn’t trust him and had no intention in getting to know him any farther. But he seemed to have other plans in mind.
“Why don’t you ever talk to me?” Pepper asked as Mr. Gale switched off the light and attempted to turn on a movie about the civil war. Delilah avoided his eyes and shrugged. He narrowed his eyes at her, as if thinking. “Do you have a boyfriend?” he asked. Delilah flushed at his forwardness. “No” she answered truthfully, then wishing she had lied. His lips twitched as if fighting a smile. “What?” Delilah asked. He shook his head, excluding her from his secret joke. “What are you doing this weekend?” he asked, changing the subject. Delilah brushed her raven hair out of her face. She shrugged. “Hanging out with Tess” she answered, her voice guarded. His face hardened just the tiniest bit. “Do you not like Tess?” Delilah asked, as Mr. Gale finally got the movie going. Pepper smiled but it was a wicked smile that made Delilah feel uncomfortable. “What’s to like?” he shot back. Delilah took that as a rhetorical question. She felt a little defensive, he obviously didn’t like Tess and that bugged her.
She stared at the movie wondering how long her head had been hurting without her noticing. She closed her eyes and rubbed at her temples. “What are you two doing tonight?” he asked suddenly. Delilah opened her eyes and looked over at him. “I’m not sure…why?” she lied, knowing completely well that they were going to the movies. He shrugged. “Thought I’d convince you to go to the movies with me” he said nonchalantly. Delilah’s eyes widened. What if she saw him there tonight? She would just ignore him, simple as that she told herself. “I don’t even know you” she mumbled. His lips twitched again, fighting back a smile. “Well, if you would talk to me then we wouldn’t be strangers, would we?” he asked. Delilah moved around in her seat uncomfortably. She was about to be honest with him. “I have enough friends and I don’t need anymore” she said, looking at the blurry war going on in the movie. “Who said anything about being friends?” he asked, cocky. Delilah looked away, hiding a smile. For some reason she thought what he said was hilarious. Because it will never happen, she told herself. “So, will you?” he asked, sounding exasperated. She shook her head, acting distracted by the movie. “Fine then” he said but he sounded surprised, like he had never been turned down before. Probably hasn’t, but he better get used to it, Delilah thought to herself. She suddenly thought of all the guys over the years that she turned down and realized she had never been on a date unless she counted that horrible double date Tess had set up, and who would want to count that? She tried to ignore his dark glaze for the rest of the movie, and found it very awkward.
When Delilah pulled into her driveway she noticed her brother’s white pickup. She got out of her car and hurried into the house, trying to get out of the early January wind. She walked in the side door. The old brick house had three exits, the front door to the living room, the side door in the kitchen and the back door in the laundry room. She closed the door loudly, making her presence known. She remembered the time she came home from school to find his girlfriend at the time walking around naked, he had been in the bathroom and she had been too shocked to say anything about it to him.
She walked through the kitchen and down the hallway to her bedroom. As soon as she walked in her phone rang in her pocket. “Hello” she said, already knowing it was Tess without looking at the screen. “Are we still going or are you going to stay home and read the dictionary?” Tess teased. Tess had always thought that Delilah’s love of books was unnatural and she teased her about it when ever she could. “Do you want me to meet you there or are you going to pick me up?” she asked, ignoring Tess’s teasing. “You know what? I’m feeling extra generous today…I’ll pick you up” Tess said sounding like she was waiting for a thank you. “Oh thank you great one! What would I ever do without you?” Delilah teased, sounding like a peasant praising its savior. “You are most welcome; oh no, I have grown a soft spot for the little people!” Tess shrieked jokingly. “What time are you coming?” Delilah asked, dropping the joking. Tess paused. “Hmm…be ready around seven” she answered. “Yep” Delilah said. Tess hung up without another word.
Delilah had tried to take a nap but still felt restless and on top of that her head was steadily throbbing. She sighed as she went to the kitchen for medicine for her headache. Afterwards she went to her room to change her clothes. She slid on a pair of dark skinny’s and a tank top with a cardigan then decided to wear her tan colored Ugg boots. She then went to go brush her teeth.
“Going somewhere?” Josh asked, sneaking up behind Delilah and causing her to jump. “To the movies with Tess…is that ok?” she asked, forgetting that she hadn’t asked him. After all he was her older brother and sometimes he seemed to be like the father both wished they could have, though Josh did seem to get a little over protective at times. He shrugged. “Sure” he said, acting as if he didn’t care. He turned to leave the tiny bathroom. “One more question” she said. He paused and turned slightly, waiting for the question. “Should I wear my hair up or down?” she asked a grin on her face, knowing that when she asked him those types of questions he got agitated. But he just simply smiled and turned to leave. “Up, don’t want your hair blowing in your face” he said as he made his way up the hall. A little surprised by her brothers answer, she obeyed, brushing all of her soft raven hair into a ponytail but her side swept bang that Tess insisted was too long and warned that if she falls into an open pothole from not being able to see she would not be held liable. Delilah thought that was ridiculous and had laughed for a long time.
At a quarter till eight Delilah heard a knock at the front door. Josh had beaten her to it. She watched as he let Tess in, a frown on his face. No doubt Tess had said something perverted to him. She walked over to Tess. “You ready?” Delilah said moving towards the front