Heartbeats

Chapter Sixteen

“Hey stranger,” Destiny answered with a lethal dose of poison, undoubtedly angry. I hadn’t answered any of her texts or calls, slipping away from her consistently through the week. I was more surprised she hadn’t exploded the moment she accepted the call.

“I am so sorry. I wish I could explain everything, but I really can’t. And I understand this is the worst possible time to ask for a favor, but I wouldn’t unless it was completely necessary.”

She sighed. “You owe me big time. I swear, girl, you’re running up a tab. I’m not done with you, but what do you need?”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “I need you to cover for me with my mum. I need another day to figure things out. So bad.”

I could picture Destiny on the other end, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. “Fine. One day. You can’t keep this up, though.”

“I know,” I groaned.

“You know, I was hoping you had called me to dish about the details of passionate love making with Mr. Perfect. But from the sounds of it, you’re deep in town. Are you okay Jacie? Where are you?”

I shuddered in my jacket and tried to get further removed from the wind by cuddling up to the stone wall of the apartment building. “I’ve been staying with Charles. We have some ‘mutual concerns’ we need to deal with.”

And here I could picture Destiny smiling evilly, approvingly. “Well, regardless of who the love making is with, let me know how it goes.”

“Destiny!”

“Toodles!” She laughed. “Don’t forget you owe me!”

Like always, she was the one to hang up. I shook my head at her trademark inappropriateness, smiling slightly at the normalcy, before noticing that rain was falling in strings rather than droplets. Not just rain but hail. It bounced off the roof, falling near my feet. I ran the toe of my shoe over one of the balls near me as I mulled over the last call I had to make.

I dialed her office number first, but they told me she wasn’t in. The home number just led to an answering machine, the recording of my voice from last year seeming so foreign. Everything about that house, that family, was starting to feel foreign. Shaking the thought from my head, I dialed her cell.

“Hello dear daughter. Would you care to explain why I haven’t seen or heard from you at all today?” She tried to mask her heavy breathing, so she must have just finished at the gym.

“I left earlier to help Mason study. But anyway, I needed to stay with Destiny tonight. English presentation. That okay?” For once in my life I was cursing her sobriety, hoping it wouldn’t give her enough to see through my lie. My heart was climbing up my throat, each pulse of blood another step.

“Yeah. That’s fine. But keep in mind that I am your mother, and I don’t appreciate waking to my teenage daughter’s bed being empty, almost like it hadn’t been slept in.” I heard her car chirp as she unlocked it. “By the way, how is Tesla?”

“He’s fine,” I answered curtly. “Listen, I have to go. Destiny’s waiting on me.”

“I’ll see you later dear. Keep in touch.”

I felt like I could finally relax, or at least address the present. I made my way into the lobby, quickly dodging into the stairway and running the entire way up. As I walked down the seventh floor hallway, catching my breath, I noticed the air conditioning kicking on.

I was none-too-happy when I rushed into Charles’s apartment, chilled to the bone. He eyed me with one brow cocked.

“Does someone need a hug?” he teased, rising from the couch.