Envious (5 page)

I pulled my long curly hair back, tying a ribbon around it. I placed the basket nearer the clay pot and got down to my knees. Taking the pot by the lip, I tried to tip it slowly in the direction of the basket.

“Pardon me, Lady?”

In surprise at hearing a voice, I dropped the pot far too low and it began spilling its contents over the basket and onto the ground. I struggled to tip it back up, but the weight had shifted making it much more difficult to move. I turned my head towards the voice behind me and saw a boy with a pony and cart. I had never spoken to this boy, yet I had seen his face many times. He worked for the master sword maker and would often take this road. He had a lovely face, though smeared with dirt and sweat.

“Do you need assistance?” he asked.

“Yes, if you wouldn’t mind.”

He left his pony on the road and carefully lifted the pot, setting it upright. Then he knelt next to me and began to help collect the spilled feed into the basket and pot.

“Oh, you need not help me with that. You must be in a hurry.”

“I am in no such thing.” His hair, the lighter shade of wheat, lay before his eyes, yet I could clearly see their deep blue hue glinting with bright sparks.

“I am ahead of schedule, delivering the chain mail to the armory. Besides, I try to make a habit of aiding maidens in distress,” he said with a slight smile.

All of the feed was back where it belonged, however my thoughts were not. My eyes caught on his every feature, his strong, broad shoulders and slender waist. His arms were that of a good servant, strong and dark-tanned. His muscles rippled under his tunic with every movement he made. My heartbeat quickened.

“Would you be in need of any more heavy lifting?” he asked thoughtfully.

“No, I think I shall be fine. Thank you,” I answered with a harsh flush covering my face.

He took his pony’s reins in his hand and gazed back at me. “I shall come back this way tomorrow, and I hope to find myself of some use once again.” He smiled at me and through the dirt on his face, he beamed. “I am always willing to help a beautiful woman.”

CHAPTER 6

THE WAY TO VICTORY

That last vision was so strong. So vivid. So real. It was real. They were all real. Eric understood, he agreed. We have been reincarnated, and I was never so glad for that as I was with that last vision. I knew that must have been Eric. He was much more rugged, tan and strong than the present Eric. Much dirtier too, but that was him. And he was with me, not Aurora. Maybe there was a chance for us. Maybe if there was no Aurora, Eric would be mine.

I grabbed a towel and my shower basket and left my room, heading to the bathroom. I was there earlier than usual and had to wait for a shower stall. I crammed into the only remaining space behind the door, last in a haphazard line. I usually aimed to get there once the wait was over and everyone else was on their way out the door, but with the excitement over my last vision, I hadn’t even looked at the clock.

Kelly, a friend of Aurora’s squeezed past on her way to the mirrors and we both said hi. The usual for us; we only carried on conversations in class or in front of Aurora. Two girls ahead of me were talking to each other in barely hushed voices. They mentioned a party.

The taller girl, Chelsea, mentioned an Eric and I perked up at the sound of his name.

“Now that Aurora isn’t here, maybe he’ll actually come.”

That was my Eric she was talking about. Why would or wouldn’t Aurora have him go to a party?
Oh, come on Sandy, she must have told you.

“Yeah, I hear he’s a party freak. My roommate went to high school with him and apparently he ruled the parties,” the other girl commented.

Eric? A party freak? He couldn’t be. Goofy Eric? Impossible. And Aurora wouldn’t let him go? She always went to parties, but I don’t recall her ever saying, “Eric and I” when talking about those parties. She did say once she hated
party drink bingers
, whatever that means. Maybe she would dump Eric if he were one.
Maybe he is.

What if he went?

Aurora might break up with him, giving him a chance for true happiness. It would be worth the trouble of getting him there. I stepped into a now open shower thinking of ways to make Aurora and Eric split up, if they weren’t already.

If I were to break them apart, I would have to be subtle. Aurora might be out of the way right now—an entire state away—but she would be back.
She had a way of putting the pieces together. She was smarter than she looked, the witch. Eric could also be a problem. He was smart when it came to people. He could smell a rat, although that didn’t explain why he couldn’t see through Aurora. Maybe I didn’t know Eric as well as I should. That needed to change, before anything began. I must understand his weaknesses, his strengths, and his desires.

Could I ever be desirable to him? Would he ever dream of holding me? Kissing me? Would he ever want me?

That night, Eric and I had planned to study math in the dorm’s lower lounge. It was on the first floor and filled with windows facing a sad view of a parking lot. The lounge itself was kind of cool looking, with all its brightly-colored furniture. It was small—it held maybe three sofas and a few tables— but it was nice to have a neutral place inside the building, a place that was always quiet and mostly empty. The upstairs lounge was the busier and louder of the two. It had a TV. The two lounges and the lobby were the only places in the dorms with security cameras. That explained why they were always the quietest places in the building during party nights, like tonight.

There were only two other people in the lower lounge when I arrived, one writing a paper on his laptop and another doing homework with headphones on.

My mind clung to the last vision I had had and the confidence that it brought me. The way Eric looked at me had felt like the beginning of something wonderful, but when he walked into our meeting place, “wonderful” was not the first word to cross my mind. Terrible. That was the word. He looked the same as before, half dead.

“What-” I began to ask what was wrong but then changed my mind. “You look tired.”

He dropped his black shoulder bag to the floor and slumped down into a teal lounge chair, sliding a bright green pillow out of the way. “I’m so far behind from missing just one day of classes,” he grumbled. “I stayed up so late just trying to get through the readings and papers. One word for my life,
pathetic.
It was just one day. If I was anyone else it would have only taken an hour or so.”

“I doubt that. Do you want to skip studying, take a break? I hear there’s a party upstairs.” I didn’t know if I was being too subtle or not subtle enough.

“Nah,” he said, leaning back as he opened a notebook on his lap.

Nah?! What kind of answer was that? Couldn’t he have given an answer I could respond to? Plan B.

“I’ve never been to a college party,” I said. Hopefully he would offer to take me, however, the down side would be that I would have to go. Party? I was not a party girl.

“You’re not missing much,” he said. He didn’t even look up from his notebook. Too bad I didn’t have a plan C.

I muttered, “Yeah, probably not. Aurora goes to those things all the time and she never has much to say about them.” Wait, I got an idea. “Do you ever go with her?”

He looked up, slightly annoyed. “No.”

“Whenever she’s there, I just study or watch a movie, totally bored all night. How about you? I know that everyone on your floor must be there. What do you do?”

He pulled his math book out of his bag and opened it rather roughly on the table between us. He shot me an icy cold glare. I had annoyed him and he was trying to send me the message to back off. “I do whatever I want. And I don’t want to go to any stupid party. Got it?”

“Ok, fine,” I replied. I tried to sound upset that he got mad at me, even though I wasn’t. I knew I was being annoying.

Leaning back, he made some frustrated, drawn-out grunt. “You seriously want to go?” he asked.

I turned my head away to just the right angle.

“No, I’ll survive without a
stupid
party.” I stuck out my bottom lip, just slightly. Just enough…

“We’re not staying long, got it?”

“Oh, you’re coming too?” I asked, innocently clapping a hand just below my collarbone, like the women in old movies. He stared at me, trying to force back a tiny smile.

The smile proved too strong for his goofy nature to hold back. “You’re such a dork,” he said, grinning through his good-natured insult. I smiled back.

As we walked up the stairs to his floor, he gave me the party run-down. “Don’t trust any open drinks. You never know what they could be. And don’t ever leave your drink out of your sight. Somebody could slip something into it, okay?”

“Anything else, Professor?”

“Yeah, don’t go alone with anybody, to their room, outside, or whatever. I don’t want you getting hurt or anything.”

“Ok, so far, trust no one, trust nothing. Got it.”

“I’m being serious,” he pleaded with me.

“I’ll come straight to you if anyone tries to feed me rat poison. Come on, this party is on campus, how wild could it be?”

We stepped out of the stairwell and immediately heard the deep thumping music. After dropping our books off at his room, we turned the corner to the next hall and found people everywhere. Eric handed some guy money and we walked into one of the rooms.

“You have to
pay
to go to a party?” I asked.

“How else could they afford the kegs?”

“
Kegs?
They hold beer, right?” I asked. Eric burst into laughter at my comment. Wow, my party idea really seemed to work out well. He was happier already. I could even feel myself changing. Since we had become closer, I didn’t mind when he laughed at me. Maybe it was because now I was sure that he liked to hang out with me, and it wasn’t just out of obligation to Aurora.

Eric looked out over everyone’s heads, waving to someone. “Hey, I’ll be right back,” he told me as he walked off through the tightly-packed crowd.

The rooms in this wing of the building were much larger and usually reserved for upperclassmen. The beds were bunked, making room for two sofas, which were taken. In fact, so were the beds. Looking around without my bodyguard, the party looked kind of pathetic. The majority of the people were drinking something, probably beer. Everyone was standing around, socializing, or taking in the atmosphere. The energy level was very low.

Where did Eric go?

The thought pounded like a drum in my head when I realized there was a guy staring at me in the most unattractive way: gawking, jaw slack, and slouched over. I found my way out of his sight, but the uncomfortable feeling didn’t go away.
Maybe I should have a beer.
Everyone else was relaxed, and they were drinking. Where was Eric? How long had he been gone? I looked for an exit. I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay much longer. How long had I been there? Twenty minutes? Half an hour? It seemed so long. Where was Eric? Why didn’t he come back? Maybe I was wrong, and he ditched me here, laughing with his friends over what a loser I am. I slowly walked the perimeter of the room, acting casual and trying to avoid the sleazeball who kept following me.

Suddenly, the music switched to some heavy techno and turned up loud. The whole crowd’s attention was drawn to my right, where Eric and two other guys had just jumped up on a table near the DJ equipment.

“Excuse me, ladies and losers. This party sucks shit, man. Come on! Get up!” Eric yelled and he downed the drink in his hand. He threw the empty cup into the crowd and a bunch of his friends hopped up on the furniture.

Everyone began to dance. They all seemed to know the song. I, however, did not, but I wasn’t much of a dancer anyway. It was as if someone turned a switch on, the party came to life as Eric and his friends took over the scene. I searched for Eric’s face in the crowd, but I kept losing him. I wished he had stayed on that table. Pushing through two people, I saw Eric put his arm around some guy’s shoulders and declare a contest.

“Shit. Anyone who can beat me gets to screw me all night!”

I was shocked. Did Eric really just say that? How could those words come out of his sweet mouth? Just like that comment about the party. I had never seen him act so wild. No, that wasn’t the word. Appalling, crazy, completely different. Was this what a party drink binger was? Eric?

What have I done?

I lost sight of him again as people crowded into the hallway. It seemed like the entire party had emptied into another room. Someone touched my hair. I spun around and saw the sleaze smelling me. Disgusting. I stepped away from him and he smiled an I’m-on-drugs-and-I-like-it-smile.

“Get lost, creep,” I said as I hurried away from him. My words weren’t enough. He followed anyway.

“Why you gotta act like that, baby. Don’ you know I loooove you? Why you goin’, sexy?”

The room wasn’t very big and it was hard to lose him now that it was mostly empty.
Where is Eric?
I had to find him. Now. I stepped out of the room and followed the crowd. Pushing through, I found a place for myself in the mob. Eric and a girl, Chelsea, from the bathroom, were sitting down at a small table, drinking shots of something. The girl fell off her chair. Her friends jumped forward to help her up.