Heart of Glass

Chapter 24

There was a knock on the door and Ariel jumped.

"Are you going to be long?" Kestral's voice filtered through.

Getting up, she opened the door, feeling like an idiot. I ran into a bathroom like some sort of Scarlett O'Hara drama queen, she thought. I'm a freaking moron.

Kestral's expression soured when she saw who it was. "Oh, it's just you."

"Sorry." Ariel stepped by her. "All yours."

Lucas' voice was in her head, telling her about Kestral not having a cure. Not thinking, she grabbed the door before Kestral could close it.

"Do you mind?" She snapped. "I prefer to not have an audience for this."

Ariel let go of the door. "Look, I just wanted to say sorry."

Kestral's eyes narrowed. "About what?"

"About the other week; barging in on your appointment and seeing..." she trailed off. "I didn't mean to, I was just worried about Ben. I know you don't like me, but I wanted to apologise anyway."

"Fine," Kestral muttered. "Whatever makes you feel better."

"Are you going to the movie tonight?" Ariel chose to ignore her snarky remarks. Her mind was still filled with confusion.

"No, I don't want to. I'm not interested in movies, especially if Michael's going."

"Michael?" Ariel pressed. "I thought you guys were friends?"

"I'm not his friend," she scoffed. "I'm only nice to him so he'll drive me into town. Anything to get away from this snoozefest."

"Then why the sudden change of heart?" Ariel argued. She wasn't surprised that Kestral was using him. Nothing she did surprised her anymore. Her bluntness was something she'd gotten accustomed to.

"Because, I know what he's like when he's not here. You're all morons if you think he's as nice as he lets on." She sneered. "All that 'bella' crap he's always spouting, he's full of shit."

"What so you're endearment threshold has been reached and you can't be around him anymore? Ariel asked sarcastically.

Leaning on the doorframe, Kestral folded her arms across her chest. "I can put up with that bullshit, but after that guy got his throat ripped out, I'm not going into town with Michael again."

"What?" Ariel asked, exasperated.

Kestral rolled her eyes. "Gods you're slow. You really think he goes into town just to check if his fiancé has written him a letter? Who writes letters in this day and age, seriously? He's always on the phone, especially more in the last few weeks. Always in Italian, talking about getting a job done and then all of a sudden an Italian 'tourist' is murdered?"

"How do you know what he was saying?"

"Because my high school Italian teacher knew how to do her job." She replied impatiently. "Now do you mind? I came in here for a reason?"

Not waiting for an answer, she slammed the door in her face.

Ariel had never felt so uncomfortable in her life. They were driving into town, Michael at the wheel with Autumn sitting next to him. She turned to look at the three passengers in the back seat, excitement oozing with every look – it was the one thing keeping Ariel's mouth shut.

Emily had pulled out all the rain gear she owned for the night; big red wellingtons that squeaked whenever they rubbed together. A big purple knee length raincoat was hiding a smaller beige one beneath, and her gloved fingers gripped the coat tightly, tugging it down every minute. The most ridiculous orange beanie was on her head, and nothing Ariel had said would make her wear something else. Ariel was happy to see her grow a backbone about something, but she wished it were for something other than that disgusting beanie.