The Soul Quest ( #YourStoryIndia #Wattys2016)

Chapter 16

The next few weeks were a blur of pain and loneliness. Jared avoided me like the plague and I was too much of a coward to face him. Paula kept pestering me to tell her what happened until I snapped at her and she left me alone. Emily and Paula were getting along like a house on fire. On the surface, Emily seemed to be adjusting well to humanity but occasionally I caught her looking at Jared with a haunted expression. I realized she wasn't doing any better than me.

The end of the school year was approaching and our final exams were soon upon us. Struggling to keep up, I lost myself in my studies and before I knew it the exams were done. There was a palpable excitement in the air at school now. Prom night was just a week away. I saw no point in going without Jared so I resigned myself to an evening with a good book and hot chocolate. Or so I thought until Paula found out.

Marching into my house the day after finals, she dragged me out for dress shopping. She was like a force of nature when she got pissed off.

"I can't believe you would give up prom just because of a guy Kelly. Okay I know Jared isn't some guy but you and I both know he is going to come back to you anyways. So I don't see any point in moping about like it is the end of the world. No, you aren't allowed to say a word." She threatened me as I opened my mouth to argue. "Now this is what you are going to do. You are going to buy a gorgeous dress and you are going to look amazing and sexy and you ARE going to prom with Emily and me. In fact you are going to look so good that Jared will be begging you to take him back by the end of the night. Do you understand?" She asked with an expression that dared me to disagree with her. Wisely I nodded my consent and went along with her 'plan'.

The day had arrived and the three of us were at Paula's house. Emily and I had had just about enough of her perkiness but we patiently bore it as she did our makeup and hair. By seven in the evening the three of us were ready.

I was wearing a black tube dress paired with black sandals with my hair cascading down my back. Paula looked stunning in a simple white gown with a slit in one side with a pair of white sandals and her hair tied in a sleek bun. Emily was wearing a black short dress with roses embroidered at the top and blue lace at the bottom with a pair of blood red sandals. I had to admit that we looked pretty amazing. Paula had done an amazing job and our dresses fit us like a glove. Looking at myself I could almost believe that Jared wouldn't be able to stay away if he saw me tonight.

"How are we going to school?" I asked Paula.

"Oh Peter is going to pick us up." She replied nonchalantly. "He is my date tonight."

"Whaaat? How did that happen?" I exclaimed in surprise. "Did you hold a gun to his head and bully him into being your date?"

Emily burst into a fit of giggles and embarrassment coloured Paula's cheeks.

"Oh my God!" I shouted. "You seriously threatened him to be your date?" I burst out into peals of laughter. "How did you manage that?"

"I told him that if he didn't agree I would stalk him all through our summer break at the coffeeshop. He got a job there as an excuse to stay in town. You can laugh all you want." She huffed looking at Emily and me disdainfully. "That guy has some serious stuff going on and he needs to talk to someone about it before he goes insane. I am doing this to help him."

"Sure. All of this is just for his sake." I replied sarcastically. "There is nothing for you in it. How selfless of you."

"You guys can at least be supportive." She said in a hurt tone.

"You know we are just teasing you." I said consolingly. "I hope you can get through to him honey. He looks too serious all the time. You are exactly what he needs." I told her giving her a hug. "You are exactly what all of us need. I mean look at how gorgeous we look. Thank you for making me do this. I already feel so much better. Maybe Jared will talk to me. It feels like nothing can go wrong tonight."

I had no idea how wrong I was.

JARED'S POV

"Jared! Open up."

Ian's voice drifted across the room as he knocked at the door of my room incessantly. I ignored him and turned up the volume on the TV.

"Don't be an idiot Jared. I know where the spare key is. So save me the trouble of going downstairs to get it." He said exasperatedly.

Crossing the room I opened the door with a thunderous expression.

"Before you start hitting me listen to what I have to say. I don't know what happened between Kelly and you but whatever it is you both need to talk about it. This is obviously affecting you a lot so just come with me tonight and talk to her man. You have been acting like a freaking zombie for the past few weeks and honestly it's scaring me now. Here take this." He said thrusting something in my hands. "We are leaving in ten minutes and I am not taking no for an answer."

Dumbly, I stared at the tux in my hands. It was prom night. Kelly would be there tonight. She would be dressed up and I knew she would look stunning. Suddenly I had this urge to see her. I won't talk to her, I thought to myself. I'll just see her and leave.
Hurriedly I changed into the tux and headed out.

"I knew you would come." Ian grinned at me. "You are too scared of me to risk my wrath."

"Seriously?" I asked him. "I am the one who has superpowers and you think I am scared of you a puny little human?"

"Every time you throw that in my face. Every damned time. How did you survive five years without showing off? And for the record there is nothing little about me." He said scornfully flexing his biceps.

I relaxed as we bantered playfully on the way to school. When we entered the packed hall I immediately started searching for Kelly. She hadn't arrived yet. Mingling with the other students I waited with tingling anticipation for her to come. Sometime later I looked towards the entrance and there she was. She was wearing a black dress with those beautiful hair set loose. She looked absolutely stunning. And she was looking right at me.

I didn't even realize I had started walking towards her until I was standing right in front of her.

"Hey." I said tentatively.

She swallowed nervously and whispered a timid hello.

"Kelly...." I started saying but stopped as she threw her arms around me and started crying. Alarmed, I put an arm around her and led her outside so that we could have some privacy.

"Sshh. Please stop crying." I whispered in her ear. At that moment as I held her in my arms, I realized what a jerk I had been. Of course it wasn't Kelly's fault that my Dad was dead. How could I blame someone as innocent and as caring as her? In fact if my Dad could see me now he would be extremely disappointed in me. He had died trying to protect her and I had insulted the sacrifice he had made by pushing her away.

"I am so sorry Kells." I apologized profusely. "I had no right to blame you. Protecting you was my Dad's choice and I am glad he made that decision. Or else you and I would never have met. And sacrificing his life to keep you safe only shows how much he cared about you. I will not dishonor his sacrifice by playing a blame game. Will you forgive me please?" I beseeched her.

"Oh Jared! I was never angry at you. I knew you were hurting when you said those things. Of course I forgive you."she replied with a smile.

"Thank you." I whispered as I kissed her. "Thank you. Now let's go have fun at our prom."

"Yeah. Let's do this." She said excitedly and arm in arm we walked in to join our friends.