Outcast Excerpt by Benise Jaden

Excerpt:
I beeline toward them, anger blurring my vision. It’s not like I even know Elijah, but I need to protect him like no one protected me.

"What are you doing here?" I say straight at Elijah, since I know Sebastian could take this little transaction somewhere where I won’t be watching. I was the one who needed to get a clue in eighth grade. Elijah’s the one who needs to get a clue now.

Elijah looks from side to side, clearly not believing I’m talking to him in this tone. He finally looks back at me blankly. Sebastian holds up his soda can and grunts something about needing a refill.

Even better. After Sebastian clears out, I wait for Elijah’s answer, but when he changes the subject, I realize he’s not going to give me one.

“You did the right thing,” he says. I think he’s talking about Sebastian, until he adds, “It’s good you talked to your mom today, even if it made Mr. Burke angry.”  He has to yell the last part, because someone has turned up the music.

My mom? What is he…He motions across to where Hope has her back to us, in my mother’s coat. Right, I had thought it was my mother at school today. That seems so long ago. I have to smile a little that Elijah thinks I’d bring my mother to a party like this.

“It’s my sister,” I mumble.

But when I look back at him and realize he hasn’t answered me about why he’s here, in fact, he’s trying to give me advice, my smile fades.

As if to push me further, he says, “You need to make things right. You have to get rid of any guilt and the things you’ve never been able to say while you have the chance.”

While I have the chance? Does he know that my mother hasn’t been around in years? And how the hell would he know anything about my guilt? He’s staring off over my head, so I can’t read in his eyes exactly how much he does know about me.

“Oh yeah?” I force a mocking tone, but the more I look at Elijah, at his unfazed eyes, the more I want to get the hell away from him. Because I know in my right mind he doesn’t have any clue what Kass-The-Enigma, the girl with the dead sister, the freakshow-of-a-father, and the abandoning-secretive-mother is going through. How could he?

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