Chapter Twenty-Eight
"We should go," Cecil said quietly. We were both sitting down on one of the stone steps and I just couldn't bring myself to look up in order to see what Andrzej had turned into.
But I didn't want him to think I was scared of him so as the growling continued to get closer, I raised my head to look. We were maybe three feet away from the cage and when I looked, a pair of yellow eyes were staring back at me. Everything about them was wild, out of control, and feral, willing to rip into anything that was on that side of the cage with carnivorous ferocity.
There wasn't a drop of Andrzej in them at all.
I sat up slowly, maintaining eye contact with the wolf as I got up, not wanting to startle him.
"Tally," Cecil warned.
But I ignored him and took a step down, closer to the cage. The growling ebbed up a little, the wolf's eyes flashing at me, daring me to get closer so he could rip into me if he could reach me. But I wasn't going to back down on this one, knowing whole heartedly he would never hurt me. Where that piece of knowledge was coming from, I had no clue but it was one of those deeply rooted beliefs that just wouldn't be shaken.
Remembering a tactic my father used on a neighbor's dog once, I held out my hand and made a shushing noise. The growling died down a little more and his eyes ticked to my hand, eyeing it with wariness curiosity.
"I'm not going to hurt you," I said softly and he looked back up at me. "I promise."
His lip ticked up like he was going to snarl at me but it stayed down and he shifted from foot to foot like he wanted to but wasn't so sure about it. He was pretty huge, very intimidating and I was getting the feeling that he wasn't really used to someone approaching him willingly.
But it was me and I don't know what it was but he actually let out an irritated noise when I didn't get any closer. Cecil remained on the step behind me, watching the whole things and I didn't look back at him just in case it would draw the wolf's attention to him. For the moment, the wolf knew he was there and was accepting it but all the focus was on me.
I took the step forward that I needed for my fingers to be touching the iron and the wolf pushed his nose as close as possible. His breath fanned across the back of my hand as he sniffed me a couple of times.
Then surprisingly, he licked my fingers before turning away and going off into one of the far corners without anymore growling or snarling. I'd either just tamed the wolf or he was extremely bipolar.
I was going with bipolar as he sniffed around, baring his teeth at nothing.
I looked back at Cecil finally, a frown on my face. "That was odd."
"You have no idea." He came down the few steps and pulled me close. "All I saw was the flash of werewolf teeth and the need to slice into his ass was worse than I'd ever felt before."
The warning growl from the corner the wolf had slinked off to reminded Cecil he could hear what he was saying. Andrzej as a wolf was far more intelligent than I ever thought he would be. Not that he wasn't smart as a human but this was just...way more than I expected. Wolves were wild and instinctual, generally staying away from humans completely.
"We should go. He may like you but I'm another story."
"He's going to be ok, though, right? No one's going to come in here and try and hurt him?"
"I think you're underestimating how dangerous he is." That earned him another growl. "No one can get in here without him knowing and I'm more than positive he can take care of himself. Nothing will happen to him probably ever."
"How do you know?"
"Because this temple, like many others, are safe havens. It only works if the god is your patron. So we're pretty much fair game."
"That means Zeus..."
"Is Andrzej's patron, yes."
"How did that happen?"
"Your guess is as good as mine. No one knows."
We'd reached the door and I turned back to look at the wolf. He was busy sniffing around the table where the basin sat, paying neither of us any attention. From this distance he looked completely docile, something Andrzej said he wasn't when he was a wolf.
"Are you sure..."
Cecil took my face in his hands, making sure I was looking at him before answering. "He'll be perfectly safe. Besides, we're coming back at midnight to check on him."
"We?" I raised an eyebrow.
"You and me." He smiled. "We have the weekend and until it ends, you're not leaving my sight. Maybe just to use the bathroom and shower but that's it."
"What about golf?"
He chuckled. "We're paired up tomorrow. Didn't you look at the roster? You really must pay closer attention, Ms. Abernathy..."
Just to shut him up, I shoved him out of the doorway but he caught my hand and pulled me after him. He kept the rather smug smile on his face as I moved closer in his bubble like he had the night in the forest during my date with Union. The smile slowly dropped off as his eyes shifted from mine to my mouth, making it my turn to smile smugly. He was pretty much captivated and tilting his head forward a little the second I brought my face close to his. The lines on the left side of his face were going crazy and I watched them go for a few seconds before actually kissing him.
I don't think I could ever get over what it felt like to kiss him, what it actually meant. And for just a moment, I let everything else fade away. Like the fact that after this weekend, we may never get to do this again or that everyone was telling me we'd be together but we weren't allowed to. I ended up breaking the kiss and wrapping my arms around him as tightly as possible, never ever wanting to let him go.
In the distance, I heard the wolf back in the temple howl mournfully, almost as if he was trying to portray my feelings even though I couldn't at that moment. All I could do was bury my face between the collar of Cecil's dress shirt and his throat, breathing in the all too familiar scent of lavender and vanilla.
Cecil released his own sigh of relief and it almost made me laugh. You'd think we hadn't seen each other in years the way we were acting. I could feel his fingers tracing across my skin on my back, as if they were tracing the life lines even though he couldn't see them. His own face was buried in the crook of my neck.
"Do you remember first semester of eleventh grade, last block chem class?"
"Yeah," I said, wondering what that had to do with anything.
"That first day, when we got our assigned seats, I made sure I got one somewhere behind you because I figured if you couldn't see me staring you'd never know I was." His fingers paused their tracing for a moment and he propped his chin on my shoulder. "When we were kids I always knew exactly where your lines were and unlike mine, I knew yours would never move. But one morning, during that summer before eleventh grade, I woke up and couldn't remember their placement. And it was weird because I can remember everything from when we were kids. This sort of panic began to build up inside of me and drove me out of bed until I found myself standing in the coffee shop where you work. But the barista told me you had the day off. I left the coffee shop and started to wonder around town, looking for you. It wasn't until about noon that I found you and by then I was cranky as hell from the heat. But there you were, sitting in the park having lunch with Schy. You were wearing a light blue sundress with white flowers and you were joking around with Schylar, acting as if nothing was wrong. It was as if your world was fine without me in it. I started scolding myself, telling myself that it was stupid of me to panic and as I turned away, Schylar reached out and picked up your wrist. And a frown crossed his face before you yanked it back, shrugging after he asked you a question."
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked quietly.
"Because it was then I noticed the friendship bracelet we'd made back in the fifth grade tied around your wrist. I knew it was the one I'd made for you because it was that god-awful orange and purple braided catastrophe. I left before either of you could see me and I made sure that first day in last block chem that I had a seat behind you so I could stare at you without you knowing, making sure that I knew exactly where every life line was so I wouldn't forget again."
I stayed quiet for a moment, thinking that all over. "Cecil, that's either the most stalkerish thing anyone's ever said to me or the sweetest."
"I was going for sweet."
"Yeah, I figured."
We got back to the car, his left hand firmly clasped in my right one and for the moment everything was fine. There was peace in the world. At least for us anyways.
Until Cecil said the one thing I'd hoped he would never say.
"Do you want to talk about what Andrzej said?"
Trying to play dumb I simply said, "What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean."
"No."
Silence as he started the car but the moment he turned the radio down I knew we were going to talk about this, thoroughly. My father did the same thing when I was a kid and the similarity was eerie. He's obviously learned more things from my father than how to approach the green.
"I think we should."
"Ce..."
"It was only one time." He was gripping the wheel so hard his knuckles were turning white. "One girl. That's it."
"I didn't say anything..." I stared out the windshield not really wanting to look at him for this. "I didn't think you were a virgin anyway."
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him look at me with a strange expression. "You didn't."
I shook my head. "I didn't think you were doing a Schylar or anything but...I don't know. I just—it was a feeling."
"It didn't mean anything." He winced and turned to look straight ahead again. "That made me sound like an asshole." He let out a sigh and I did everything in my power not to dissect it. "I was at the point when—I was alone and I couldn't help but think..."
"You thought I was never going to be Elite."
He nodded. "Yeah and it was the worst feeling. I was so angry, day after day it just wasn't happening and I got angrier and angrier thinking, what the hell's the point? So...there was this girl. We'd been friends since I became hermai. We hung out a couple of times and she kissed me once." His jaw clenched tight and I could see this was not something he really wanted to be confessing but he was doing it anyway to...well, I wasn't sure. As for me, my vision was turning a little red at the thought of another girl having the nerve to even try to kiss him. "There was some underage drinking involved, I'll admit, and towards the end of the night I simply said what the hell."
Silence.
"And?" I asked.
"And...I—I—she—we did it."
"That's kind of the definition of not being a virgin, Ce."
"I know but...I don't know. When it was over, it just didn't feel right, for either of us and we decided..." he shrugged "...I never did it again. Like I said, it was just the once."
I couldn't help the bubble of laughter that was working its way out of me. "That's..." I started chuckling, "...that's the worst thing I've ever heard." I smacked his arm while still laughing. "What's wrong with you? How could you do that to that poor girl?"
"You really know how to deflate a guy's ego."
"Oh, oh," I turned in my seat to face him, "I didn't know your ego was at stake. Was it really that bad?"
He sighed. "It just...let's say it wasn't with the right person so it was missing something." He looked over at me and I caught a hint of a blush on his face as we passed under a street light. I felt bad. Yeah what he'd done was a completely douche worthy move but it wasn't like he was going out and sleeping with every girl he saw. Cecil was a teenage boy so...
"It's ok. Really. I'm not surprised. I know there are those people out there who think it's the greatest gift you can give to the person you're in love with but let's be realistic for a second. It's freaking awkward to lose your virginity to another virgin. No one knows where to put anything and then all that fumbling..."
Cecil busted out laughing. It got to the point he was laughing so hard he had to pull over so we wouldn't wreck.
"What?" I shrieked. "What's so funny?"
He put the car in park and sat there for a second, looking over at me with his hand covering the obvious smile on his face. Before I knew it, he'd unbuckled his seat belt and had my face between his hands.
"Have I told you how much I love you?"
"No but..."
He cut me off by kissing me. It wasn't one of our long drawn out moments of toe curlingness but it was enough to throw my brain out of whack for a little bit and make the butterflies in my stomach go crazy. He ended up being the one to end the kiss and pulled back to look at me.
"Did Schylar tell you that?"
"Hmm?" I pressed my lips into a thin line, thinking. "Tell me what?"
He was amused. "How it works the first time."
"You'd be surprised what Schy has told me over the past couple of years. You can't tell me it's not true though."
"No, you're right but...it's very liberal minded of you. It's not something I ever expected the little girl who sang "Jesus loves me" in the local Baptist church choir when we were kids to say."
"I do believe that same little girl said shit when she was three in front of the pastor."
He grinned. "True. Your mom said it was the most surprised she'd ever seen him and I have to say she was right." He brushed his thumbs across my cheeks. "But still. You waited and you had faith in me. I should've done the same."
"It was harder for you. And after going the past week without being able to talk to you, I'm surprised you didn't crack more over the past three years."
"Well, I can't say there weren't some heavy make out sessions..." I smacked him on the chest "...I'm just glad you don't hate me because of it."
"I could never hate you, Cecil. Severely dislike you, maybe, but not hate."
"Ok."
He buckled himself back in after brushing another kiss across my lips and shifted the car into gear, turning up the music a little so it was still low enough for conversation but loud enough that the car wasn't filled with awkward silence.
Cecil started humming along to the song and I couldn't help but hate Delilah at that moment.
"Don't start singing *NSYNC. It's beneath you."
We had to pull over again because he was snorting from laughing so hard. And to make it worse, he did start singing the damn song, nudging me in the arm until I joined him.
*
"Here's a question," Allie said after cracking open one of the complimentary peanuts. "Why don't you sit as the same table as us at lunch?"
I shot a glare at my best friend but she was currently looking at Cecil, waiting for his answer. The three of us were the only ones at the table for the moment since Dad had to take a call. Cecil and I made it back just in time for dinner, something I was happy about since I felt like I could eat a horse. I ended up having to drive the rest of the way because he wouldn't stop laughing or coincidentally singing. He went through an Everclear song and the infamous Temptation's song we'd branded each other with when we were kids.
In order to figure out what he was going to say in response to that question, Cecil ate the two green beans that were speared at the end of his fork. I could tell he was thinking about it because he was scowling down at his plate. Allie thought she'd won so she was smiling at his down casted face triumphantly. I had a feeling these two would be going at it at least half the time they were around each other. It was like having Schylar here but not.
Speaking of my afro headed best friend, my phone chimed from my purse and I knew instinctively that it was him.
So while Cecil continued to think over his explanation, I dug my phone out and read the message.
Bored here w/o u. When R U cumin home?
I smiled at the screen.
"What?" Allie said. "Who is it?"
"Schy. He's bored."
"Of course he's bored. His usual Friday night entertainment isn't there."
Instead of texting him back, I decided to call him just to make his night. He picked up on the second ring.
"Oh thank god! Please tell me you're pulling into city limits."
"Hello to you too, Schy. And no. I'm not."
"Damnit! Why the hell not?!"
"Because it's only Friday and I'm not coming back until Sunday. I told you that."
Whinny noises ensued on the other end of the phone. "That's not acceptable. What the hell am I supposed to do this weekend without you?"
"Ponder the reasoning of the universe."
"It's 42, Nat. Everyone knows that."
"According to Douglas Adams that's the answer, not the reasoning or the question."
"Naaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttttttttt." I pulled the phone away from my ear for that one. He acted like a child sometimes. "Can't you cut out early and come home?"
"Hey, I gave you the choice to head down here with us when school ended. You declined, saying there was something you needed to do..."
"And I've done it! Now you're supposed to be here..."
"Why don't you call Chris and Corey to see if they'll come over to play a game or something."
"I've already tried that. Corey is busy with Bev and Chris isn't answering his phone. His Mom said he was out and I can't track him down. Now will you come home?"
"Give me that." Allie snatched the phone out of my hand and this time I gladly let her take it. "Now, listen here, String Bean, suck it up. So what if you have to go a few days without her..."
"Oh sure! You can say that because you're there with her!"
He said it loud enough for both Cecil and I to hear.
Plus the table next to ours. Cecil looked up from his plate, frowning, and glanced at me. I had no clue so I shrugged. I turned back to Allie, not liking the attention we were getting because of my screechy best guy friend.
"Tell him to be quiet or you'll hang up," I said with a fake smile on my face.
But Allie was ignoring me, too caught up in listening to Schylar rant and rave over the fact that she had no reason to scold him because she was there with me and he wasn't. Which, according to him, was a travesty on its own since neither of us knew how to have fun without him.
Cecil put his fork down and wiped off his hands on his napkin, nodding a couple of times to himself before reaching over to take my hand.
"Wanna dance?"
I looked at him and smiled, the phone call forgotten for now. "Really?"
He stood up, keeping my hand in his as he re-buttoned his dinner jacket which I'd given back to him in the car. "Come on."
With one last look at an oblivious Allie, I stood up and followed him onto the dance floor. Considering the last chance we had to dance didn't happen because of visions, I was a little skeptical that this one would go well. So I was a little stiff when we started off but as the seconds passed and I realized he wasn't about to tell me I was the best friend he'd ever had and never wanted to change that, I relaxed.
"You ok?" he asked. "You seem tense."
"I was just...thinking back to my birthday party."
"Ah." Brief pause. "Tally, know I would do anything to prevent you from being hurt, right?"
"Are you trying to tell me something?"
"What I said but didn't end up saying that night—I didn't want you to get hurt. I wanted my best friend back and I thought the best way to go about it was to..."
I pulled back a little and looked at him. "You figured being friends was better than nothing at all."
"It's like the Kelly Clarkson song, you know which one I'm talking about?" He started humming the tune and I nodded, not wanting to launch ourselves back into the giggle fest we had in the car.
"Don't start sing—"
"...'Cause we belong together, yeah." I popped him on the arm. "Ok, ok." He grinned. "But that's pretty much where I was. I could be your friend if it was all you wanted. But now I know you love me and by some unexplainable miracle I'm able to love you and not be dead..." He rested his forehead on mine. "There's no other way I'd rather have it."
"Even if it means this is all we'll have, these few times someone else decides it's ok for us to be together?"
"It's nonsensical, very unrealistic, but I would rather have these moments with you than nothing at all. Because I've had nothing at all and it sucked. This isn't forever, Tally, even Janus said that."
"How do you know?" I had a sneaking suspicion I already knew. "How can you be so sure?"
"Oh, you know." He braced himself before spinning me out. "I have my ways."
I smiled and I laughed.