I sat at my desk, my knees drawn up to my chest as I edited the essay that was due in Advanced Comp on Monday. I had my messenger up and was sending Sophie sporadic messages as I worked on my homework. Her last message was I saw the flowers you gave M.
I smiled and sent back. What can I say? I missed her.
Come on. Tell me where you got them.
I think you already know.
Aidan.
You are so perceptive.
What did the card say? Flowers come with cards right?
Has my brother been slacking in his boyfriend duties?
Gee.
Nothing I didn’t already know.
He wants you back.
He wants a lot of things.
You’re not going to give him another chance?
No. I’m with Michael.
I went back to my essay about the historic duchess I was named after when Sophie replied. I clicked back over.
When was the last time you talked to Michael?
I smiled at that one.
Last night.
What does he say about it?
Well considering I’m dating him, what do you think he said?
He asked you to stay away from him?
Bull’s eye.
Are you going to do it?
As much as I can. I didn’t want to be around him before hand.
Can’t you just be friends?
NO.
I set myself to invisible after that and went back to my essay. There was no way I could ever be friends with Aidan again. My brain couldn’t even process the possibility anymore. Not after what happened the night before.
An instant message box popped up in the bottom corner of my screen.
What are you doing?
I looked at the name and rolled my eyes: aidanhanover@ledford.edu.
Leave me alone.
I closed the message box and went back to reading my essay. A new message box popped open. Same sender.
Talk to me, Vertigo.
I ignored the message and just tried to concentrate on my essay. But after five consecutive dings I brought the text box back up.
You can’t ignore me forever.
He’d made the computer bing the rest of the time by sending just punctuation marks.
What the hell do you want, Aidan? I have a nine page essay I have to edit.
I can’t stop thinking about our kiss.
I stared at that message. Ugh, why wouldn’t he just leave me alone?
Try. I sent back.
I have. But it keeps playing in my head.
Try harder.
I’ve done everything I can think of. I even sketched it out. But it’s not going away.
Go kiss someone else.
No one kisses like you, Ana.
I let out an irritated noise. I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. Michael was still tuned into my emotions and if he picked up on anything stronger than complacency he’d be in my head in a heart beat.
Try to remember why we broke up. That’ll be a splash of cold water.
Ana, even a cold shower wouldn’t get rid of the fire you set last night.
I closed out messenger and went back to my essay. I finished editing it within thirty minutes and then I ran out of things to do. I finished my homework, I’d cleaned my room yesterday, hell I even did my laundry.
I put on my jogging clothes, strapped on my iPod and headed to Luke’s room. I knocked and he answered.
“Go for a run with me?”
He smiled and shook his head. “Don’t you ever stop moving?”
“Come on, Luke. Please?”
“Fine. Give me five minutes to change.”
I headed out to the living room and started stretching. Sebastis came out then and plopped down on the floor next to me.
“Sophie’s mad at you.”
I snorted. “I don’t care what she says. I’m never going to be friends with Aidan.”
“Is that what this is all about?”
“She wants us all to go back to the way things were.”
“I didn’t tell her about last night,” Sebastis said. “Do you think if I mentioned what I saw…?”
“No.” I looked at him. “Don’t tell anyone about that. Ever. It’s not going to happen again.”
“Gee, you obviously still feel something…”
“That was never the problem. The problem is it’s all a lie. And I’m not going to be just a body to keep his bed warm. There are plenty of other girls at this school to do that.”
He nodded. “Just keep your wits about you. If he still feels anything for you, and I think he does, he’ll use anything he can find to get back into your life.”
“I know. I’m staying away from him, Bast. I can’t…” I looked down at my hands. “When I’m around him…it’s hard to remember why I shouldn’t…”
He reached out and touched the scar on my neck. “When he’s around, think of this, think of how he almost killed you.”
I looked at my baby brother, suddenly thankful that my parents adopted him after my aunt died. He was the only one who could remind me of things I didn’t want to think of.
“Ok.”
“And if he gets too far out of hand, if you allow him close enough, just try to picture Michael. I know that can’t be hard. He’ll bring you back to your senses.”
“Come on, Luke! You’re slacking!”
I jogged in place for a bit waiting for Luke to catch up.
“Don’t you think two laps were enough?”
I grinned at him. “Stamina, Luke. You have to have stamina.”
“Well I’m all out of stamina. Can we go home now?”
“I think you’ve been playing video games with Sebastis too much.”
“I’m an eighteen year old boy, Gee. Cut me some slack.”
“You are not eighteen.”
“Yes I am,” he said, panting. “I look eighteen.”
I reached out when he got near me and plucked at his hair. “I don’t know Luke. I think I see some gray in with that brown.”
He swatted my hand away but continued to smile.
“I tell you what…” he eyed me closely. “Last one home pays for dinner.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “On or off campus?”
“Off. Next Saturday.”
“Buyer’s choice?”
He shook his head. “Winner’s choice.”
I sighed. “Alright. No cheating.”
“Define cheating.”
“None of that disappearing stuff.”
He grinned. “No super speed then.”
“Deal. On three?” he nodded. “One…tw—Luke!”
“Three!” he yelled.
I sighed. “Cheater!”
“Come on Gee! You’re not going to let me win are you?”
I bolted after him. He’d been faking when he said he was tired. On a good day I could keep even with him but since there were stakes in this race…I’d probably never catch him.
“Slow down!” I yelled.
“In your dreams, cupcake.”
We were running full speed into the quad and when I rounded the building next to ours I ran smack into someone. I heard a strangled cry as we crashed to the ground.
“Gee?”
I looked down. “Jamie. Shit! I’m sorry.”
“’s ok. Can you get off me?”
“Sorry.” I rolled off him and onto the grass. “I didn’t see you.”
“I was lurking, waiting for you to get back. I wanted to apologize…for what I did at the demonstration.”
I looked over at him, still trying to catch my breath. “It’s all good. I figured you were just a little high strung on stress.”
He nodded. “Something like that. To tell you the truth I didn’t expect you to be so…”
“Manly?”
He laughed. “No. I didn’t expect you to be so good.”
“Where have you been for the last…well forever?”
“We’ve never really had class together and I thought all the rumors…well I thought they were just that. Rumors.”
“Some rumors are true.”
“Like the one about you and Hanover?”
“Um…”
“Everyone saw him kissing you last night.”
“Um…”
“Everyone says you’re back together.”
“Oh no. No, no, no. I’m not with Aidan. I’m still dating Michael.”
“Didn’t look like that last night.”
I sighed. “Have you ever had a moment of weakness?”
He snorted. “I tried to choke you at the demonstration.”
“Ok…well. There ya go. It was a moment of weakness.”
“So you’re not back together with Hanover?”
“No.”
“Good. He’s a creep.”
I choked and sat up. I started laughing and he sat up next to me. “Wow Jamie. I’ve never heard that word used to describe him.”
He gave me a steady look. “After what he did…I don’t see how you could describe him any other way.”
I looked down at the grass. “What exactly do you know?”
“Just what the rumor mill spits out. No one really knows what happened last semester between you two. But there are theories. Some even say that he turned Vampire just for you.”
I scratched my head. “Well…that’s not entirely not true.”
“I know your parents hid a lot of the details about your kidnapping but they say he was involved with that too.”
“That’s not true. He wasn’t there when Jason took me.”
Jamie eyed me cautiously. “You’re not just saying that?”
I shook my head. “No. That was all Jason.”
“And he killed him.” I nodded. “Wow. That’s…just wow.”
“He’s not a complete creep.”
“He’s not exactly Mr. Sunshine either.”
“Is anyone?”
“I guess you have a point there.”
“Gee…Geeeeee!”
“Over here!”
Luke rounded the building and paused momentarily. “What happened?”
“I ran into Jamie.”
“Literally.”
Luke smirked. “Sorry man. We were racing.”
“It’s all good. I deserved the pain of collision.”
“I didn’t leave too many bruises did I?” I asked. “From the other day I mean?”
“I had a few,” he grinned, “had to ice my…”
“Sorry,” I winced. “It was the only thing I could think of.”
“Well it was…a good shot.”
All three of us stayed there in silence for a while, neither of us looking at the other.
“Well,” Jamie got up, “I just came by to say I was sorry. I need to get back.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said.
He nodded. “I’ll see you in class tomorrow.”
“Yup.”
He headed off for the dorm and I let out a breath. I looked at Luke and found him in a state of suppressed laughter. He held out a hand to help me up and I took it.
“I think you found more amusement in that then you should.”
“It was funny. What’s the chance that he was the one you ran into?”
“Karma I guess.”
“One of you must have some pretty crappy karma.”
“Probably me. Considering how my life is going at the moment.”
We started off towards home. “How is Michael?”
“Like you don’t talk to him.” I bumped his shoulder. “Good. I think. He really doesn’t tell me much about how he’s doing. He asks more about me.”
“He has every reason to worry. Considering Aidan’s back.”
“Yeah. Don’t even get me started on that.”
“Sebastis told me about what happened.”
“Of course he did,” I sighed, “I guess I should be grateful that he told you instead of our parents.”
“I don’t think he wants you under house arrest again.”
“He’s such a thoughtful little brother.”
“The point is to stay away from Aidan as much as possible. Only interact with him when people are around.”
“People were around last night.”
“I’m talking about sober, responsible people.”
“Most of them were sober and Gregori was there.”
“And he left you alone…with Aidan.”
“He had a job to do and it wasn’t to babysit me.”
“He should’ve made sure you were out before he shut down the party.”
“That’s not his job,” I said, opening the door to the apartment. “He did what he was there to do. You can’t fault him for that.”
Luke sighed. “What were you thinking even going there?”
“Daddy commanded it.”
“Why would he do that?”
“He wanted me to have some fun.”
“And did you?”
I rubbed my neck. “Not particularly.”
“Then we need to redefine your Dad’s idea of fun.”
“Good luck on that one. Daddy rarely changes anything.”
“I know. He’s had that one hair style for what…ten years?”
I laughed. “You can’t go wrong with close cut hair.”