A Slave to Love

Chapter 54: Plan

Aidan was finally better enough to drive me to school for the next four school days. Although I felt Blade's presence I never saw him, not even over the weekend, so I pretended he didn't exist. I really didn't want to see him ever, not after what happened in my room.

School was long and boring, but surprisingly Jill and I seemed to have gotten a lot closer since that incident with Brian in the cafeteria. If someone had told me at the beginning of the school year that I would one day be friends with Jill, I would have laughed in their face, yet here I was.

As much as my friends were trying to cheer me up, it got to be too overwhelming. I didn't want to be cheered up or surrounded by concern, I just wanted to go back to normal like none of this had ever happened, but every worried look my friends shot me just kept dragging me back through my pain, the kind that none of them could hope to understand fully.

I didn't have that problem with Jill though, she wasn't someone who easily pitied others and she treated me with the same attitude as always which was refreshing. And even though she couldn't remember anything, but she'd had incidents with vampires too, and that made her presence a little more comforting than the others. I had been in the same boat as her once, clueless and hurting and not knowing why, and it made her so much easier to be around. It was selfish of me to wish that she'd remember even a small part of it,  because it'd be nice to have someone to talk to. 

Aidan was wonderful to talk to, but being Mona's conduit did make things tougher than normal, especially when we mostly spoke at home it wasn't like we had utmost privacy or freedom from the people currently making my life hell. Jill was harsh, but she had shockingly good insights sometimes.

"You know...it's Christmas in about two weeks," Aidan said casually on the way home from school.

I grimaced, looking out the window as trees blurred past. This Christmas was going to be the worst. The guy I was in love with had broken my heart, the day my dad died was coming up and I was going to be stuck here, instead of back home with my mom where I wanted to be. Where I should be. It was just so pricey to fly home to New York during the holiday season and already sending me away to school was costing more than we should really be able to afford, but in an effort to save my sanity after going missing this summer, my mom had decided it was worth every last penny to try and help me, even if it meant us being apart.

"Yeah, I know," I sighed, leaning my forehead against the cold window.

"What are your plans?" His attempt at conversation was nice, but this was one of the worst topics he could have chosen.

"I don't have any." Screw Christmas. Everything was going to hell so I might as well paint myself green and be the Grinch.

The conversation died after that and I was selfishly relieved. The dark sky and cold weather made me feel gloomier than usual, and despite it being only five o'clock, it felt like midnight. I was exhausted. I just wanted to sleep, wake up with everything better, yet every morning it seemed like things felt worse and worse.

I headed straight to my room as soon as we got back and I resented its placement a little more every day. I had to pass by Blade's room every time to get to mine and when I'd first moved in, it was convenient, but now its proximity to his was the worst part. I missed my dorm room. Even my room in my mother's house. Anywhere but here was ideal.

Holding my breath, I strode past his door as quick as I could, praying the door would stay shut and he would stay on the other side until I was safely hidden away in my own room. 

Only today my prayers were not answered.

His door creaked open behind me and I kicked up the pace, gripping my schoolbag tight. My room was in sight, if I just moved a little faste--

"Kiana wait!" he called after me.