Trey's POV
"Lighten up, man," Lance said, punching my arm.
It was the night of the Yellow Moon ceremony. Everyone was getting ready for the ball, the same one we attended last year. Abbey was still getting ready, but Lance and I were dressed in our tuxedos. I was sitting, staring at my phone, waiting for Caley to call.
I remembered last year when we went to the ball together. Caley had looked stunning in her mother's old wedding dress. That night held so many memories for me. That was the night that we had taken our relationship to the next level. That was the night I told Caley that I loved her for the first time.
I sighed, rubbing my eyes. It had been nearly two weeks since I had heard from Caley. The last time I had talked to her, she was getting ready to take midterms. She had told me how much she was loving Italy, how it was so different from Trinity University. She said that the weather was amazing, that professors were incredibly intelligent, and that the land was rich with magic from the Ancient Romans and Greeks. She was learning so much.
I tried to seem supportive and show that I was happy for her. It was, after all, what she wanted to do. She had always been so interested in the magic of the ancient people. As much as she would hate to admit it, she was a history buff, something that I found incredibly boring. But I guessed that she was so interested in it because of who she was. After all, her elemental line had left its mark on magical history forever and it was in Caley's nature to be curious. It made sense that she wanted to know more about her people.
But I was still unhappy and that was because she wasn't here with me. It was selfish, yes, but I couldn't help it. And it was even more unbearable with Lance and Abbey around.
Maybe it was because I always had Caley, but ever since she had left, I noticed that Abbey and Lance showed a lot of public displays of affection. They were always kissing, or fondling each other, or hugging or something. It was sickening. And what was more, it made me miss Caley even more than I already did. And tonight, on this night, they were even more unbearable.
This may have been because Lance and Abbey had taken their relationship to a different level recently, too. Lance had said the "L" word and Abbey was ecstatic. Now all they did was throw the word around, like it meant nothing. They were getting serious, but then again, they had been together for about as long as Caley and I had been together. It was to be expected. But it didn't make it any less intolerable.
"I'm ready!" Abbey announced, walking into the student lounge area, looking spectacular in a long black gown.
"Woah, you look beautiful," Lance said. This earned him a squeal and a kiss from Abbey. I rolled my eyes to myself.
"Are you guys ready to go or not?" I asked, standing up. Abbey gave me a pity smile which made me furious. I hated it when she looked at me like that, which was pretty much all the time these days.
"Yeah, we should get going," Abbey said, linking her arm with Lance's. I walked ahead of them, not wanting to be near the sickening couple.
We made our way down to the Grand Ballroom. I immediately went to seek out Jason and some of my old Trinity High friends. Jason was newly single now, so he and I had reconnected and took to spending most of our time together. It also helped that he was a part of the Order of the Light, so we didn't have to keep anything from each other.
"Hey, man," Jason said, clapping me on the back.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Nothing, just scoping out my choices for the evening," Jason said, gesturing towards a group of single girls that were standing together looking at us and giggling. He smirked their way and gave them a nod. They all broke out into a fit of laughter, as if all of them had a chance with him.
"You're such a douche," I said to him when he turned his attention back to me. He chuckled.
"You know, this thing was a lot more exciting last year," Jason said to me as we walked to where the drinks were.
"That's because we were freshmen and had no idea what was going on. It's less impressive this year," I replied.
"And because we both had girlfriends last year," he added.
"I still have a girlfriend," I said.
"No, you have a fiancee," he corrected, giving me a look.
Jason still couldn't get over the fact that I had proposed to Caley over the summer. He thought I was rushing it, especially because we had only known each other for two years. No matter how much I told him that it didn't matter, he wouldn't listen. He thought I jumped in too deep, too fast. But I disagreed.
"You know what? How about we don't talk about Caley tonight. At all," he suggested.
"Why?" I asked, picking up a glass of white wine.
"Because every time anyone mentions her, you get that look on your face," he said, pointing at me.
"What look?" I asked.
"That one," he said, smacking me upside the head. I glared at him. "And I want to enjoy myself tonight. We deserve it after everything we've been doing for the Order," he added.
It was true. We did deserve a break. We had been doing a lot for the Order lately. With the elections coming up in about a week, it was our job to go out and rally for people to vote for Blackwood. Between training and managing Blackwood's campaign, Jason and I were swamped.
Dean Lucia wanted to put me in charge of running Blackwood's campaign because he essentially promoted me to Peter Long's position. Since Long was still missing, Blackwood needed an assistant. And Dean Lucia wanted that assistant to be me.
Working for Blackwood was just short of torture. He was intensely moody, always angry, extremely conceited, and worst of all, I had to make it seem like he was none of those things. Instead, I had to make him out to be a compassionate leader that cared about his constituents and was going to work as hard as he could to put a stop to the corruption that the dark side had created.
It was all a lie.
In my opinion, Dean Lucia should have ran against him. He would have definitely won. He was naturally charismatic and he was a committed leader, both qualities that Caley didn't appreciate about him. But when I had asked him why he didn't run, he had told me that being a government official was not something he wanted to do.
"Do you want to know why I like my job so much, Trey?" he had asked me one day while he was training me. I shook my head. "Because what I get to do is run an institution that fosters young minds like yours to think creatively about the world they live in. I get to expose you to magic and teach you spells and further your magical education, which is something that many magic users don't get. I can't think of a better job than to held mold new leaders in the magical community. That's how I can give back," he had explained.
And it made sense. Everything he had said made sense. And even more so, it explained the dysfunction between Caley and her father. Her father was so driven to educate young minds about magic, that he had forgotten to be there for his own daughter. I was beginning to understand more and more why Caley had held those feelings of resentment towards her father for so long. But she had forgiven him for some unknown reason. All I knew was that after reading her mother's letter, Caley had changed incredibly.
But I had changed, too, now. At least according to Lance and Abbey, I had. They both agreed that I seemed more mature than before and definitely stronger. They both still didn't know about the Order, but I was thinking about asking Dean Lucia if I could recruit them. They needed to know about the war, especially because it did concern their well-being and safety. And we needed all of the magical help we could get. The dark side's army was growing and they were getting stronger. Even though Dean Lucia was putting me and the younger recruits through intense training to increase our elemental magic, we were still relatively new to magic. We needed as many people to help us as possible.
"I'm going to ask Kina if she wants to dance," Jason told me, bringing me out of my thoughts. I blinked and looked over at the pretty Asian girl.
"Go for it," I said, downing the rest of my drink. I took a seat at one of the side tables and watched as people moved to the dance floor. The freshman dance was going to be in about an hour, after Dean Lucia's speech. After that, we were free to leave.
"Hello, mate," I heard a voice say. I looked up to see Fernando, the Spanish-speaking, smooth-talking recruit from Trinity's school in Spain.
"Hey, man. What are you doing here?" I asked. He shrugged and plucked a glass of wine off a tray as a waiter walked by.
"I wanted to see how Trinity University celebrated the Yellow Moon," he replied.
"It's not that amazing," I told him.
"It'll be different," he replied. We sat silently and watched the couples on the dance floor dance.
"Any stirrings here?" he asked after a moment.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Two days ago, there was an attack on our school. There were a couple of students that left campus after hours and a group from the dark side attacked them and tried to put the controlling curse on them so they would join their side. We got there in time, but they still managed to take two students hostage," Fernando replied.
"They're resorting to kidnapping, now? Unbelievable," I said darkly.
"It's ridiculous. I'm sure more than half the people that they have in their army are just brain-washed and under the controlling curse," he said.
"It's just going to make it all the more difficult when we go into battle. How would we know who's under the curse and who isn't? What if we accidentally hurt an innocent person?" I asked. He shook his head.
"It's going to be difficult. But like Lucia always says, killing is the last resort," he said.
I frowned. For some reason, I had a feeling that that was easier said than done. On the battlefield, as far as I knew, anything was game. If the people under the controlling curse were forced into killing us, what were we to do? Let them attack at the risk of losing our own lives? Or fight back at the risk of killing an innocent?
This whole war seemed like a giant mess to me and I wanted it to end. Too many centuries had been spent and too much magical blood had been spilled fighting over something as simple as a political philosophy.
No. This war needed to end with this generation.
End of Trey's POV
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A/N: Sorry for the late update! I guess I should explain why I took so long to update.
As the majority of you know, I am currently in the process of applying to medical school. I have sent in all of my applications and now I'm waiting to hear if I got in anywhere. Over winter break, I received 3 rejection letters saying I didn't get in to some of the schools I applied to. After this, I was devastated and I freaked out. So I decided to take the Pharmacy school exam and apply to pharmacy schools, just in case I don't get into any other schools. I spent my entire winter break studying for the PCAT (Pharmacy College Admissions Test) and I got a really good score on it. So now I'm just waiting. And that's why I didn't update again over winter break.
Like I said, you guys are going to have to be really patient with me. This semester is going to be very busy for me. If I DO get invites for interviews, I will be travelling to those places and preparing for interviews. And it's also my last semester in college and I want to enjoy what little time I have left with my friends.
What this means is that I would REALLY appreciate it if you didn't push me to update. It's easy for you all to demand an update, but I don't think you understand how long it takes to actually WRITE a chapter. And to those of you that leave mean and rude comments about how I suck as an author because I don't update enough, how about you try to put yourself in my position. How would YOU feel if someone told you that you are a failure just because you didn't update a story that you're writing for FUN? Try to be a little more sympathetic and patient. Don't be mean. Not only in this case, but in life in general.
I have a long weekend this weekend so I'll try to start working on the next chapter. But again, don't expect rapid updates. I'm a busy person and I have a lot going on in my life right now.
Comment and vote.
XOXO