The Academy - Friends vs. Family (19 page)

I had no idea what he meant but the
others followed close behind.

On the bus that afternoon, Danielle
never got on.

“She got sent home around third period,”
Derrick said on his way to the back seats.

“Karma’s a bitch, isn’t it?” Nathan said
under his breath, the corner of his mouth lifting.

W
eekend

I dreamed of a hovering dark ghost that wanted to devour anyone
who did wrong. Thieves, murderers, rapists, it enveloped them in darkness and
they disappeared.

And I was the thing it wanted the most.

“Sang,” Victor’s smooth baritone voice drew me from the depths of
my dream. My forehead was resting on his arm that he had stretched out
underneath my head and I’d been curled into him. His free hand swept over my
cheek, brushing my hair from my skin. “Wake up.”

I half remembered Luke saying we were late the morning before, and
I sat up quickly, afraid I’d slept in again. “What’s wrong?”

Victor rolled onto his back and looking up at me. “I was going to
ask you that. You were shaking.”

I sucked in a slow breath through my nose, stretching my back and
pushing a palm at my face. “I was?” Did I always shake when I was sleeping? No
wonder I scared Silas so much.

It was dawn. I realized it was Saturday. We weren’t late for
anything.

“Were you dreaming?” he asked. He sat up, the blanket falling away
from his chest. He’d taken off his Armani shirt he’d worn the night before and
was left in a ribbed tank shirt he’d worn underneath. It was fitted to his
chest and stomach. My eyes refused to stop staring at his lean, strong
physique. It was the most undressed I’d ever seen him. I barely remembered him
crawling into bed. After letting Luke sleep in the bed with me the night
before, it felt wrong to chase him back to the attic.

I blushed when I realized he was staring at me with the same
intensity.

“Mmm... maybe. I don’t remember,” I said, the fib dripping from my
lips and I was more than positive my lie was obvious.

Victor’s fire eyes sparked. “Are you sure?”

A finger wandered to my lip, and I nodded, afraid to admit to
lying and afraid to tell him the truth about the dream. His fire eyes forced me
to put extra effort into not shaking in front of him. The dream seemed too
small a thing and unimportant.

Victor’s head tilted, looking uncertain. “Okay... well do you want
to get going?”

I nodded. Not that I really wanted to go but because it gave me an
excuse to escape his questioning and a chance for him to forget, or so I hoped.

He pulled himself up until he was standing on the floor. “Go
shower and dress. I’ll call Nathan, and let him know we’re heading over.”

I started to move and then paused. Something felt out of sync to
me. I was still half asleep, uncertain of exactly what it was.

“What’s wrong? Do you hear something?” he asked. He was standing
by the attic door, looking back at me.

My cheeks warmed again when I realized what I was missing was
sitting in someone’s lap. They’d done it so often that now when it didn’t
happen, I felt out of place. It was Victor’s first night with me. He didn’t do
it like the others. Maybe he didn’t want to.

“Sang,” Victor stared at me for an answer.

I shook my head. “Sorry,” I said. I drifted to the closet, pulling
out the clothes I wanted to wear.

He frowned, waiting until I was at the door before he opened the
attic and crawled inside.

I drew a bath, taking a little extra time to wash, shave and take
care of my hair. Victor had warned me we were going out today and I didn’t want
to look as shaggy and worn as I felt. I wanted to soak but I knew Victor was
waiting for me.

The bath drained as I dried off. I slipped on the pair of blue
shorts I’d worn into the woods and a light gray shirt Kota gave me after we got
home from school.

I opened the bathroom door and leapt backward. Victor was leaning
against the doorframe in the hallway. My hand fluttered to my chest. “Victor?”

His fire eyes locked on mine again. “Do you always take baths in
the morning?”

What was he doing in the hallway? He could tell I was taking a
bath? If he’d been listening at all, he must have known. How long was he out
there?

“I... well I felt like one,” I said, which was mostly true. “Did I
take too long?”

He shook his head slowly, the fire dimming. “No,” he said, the
soft frown remaining on his face. He turned away from me. “Check on your mom
and let’s get out of here.” His voice dripped with something heavy, downcast.

It broke my heart. Maybe there was a reason he didn’t like me. I’d
been lying to him all morning. I summoned some courage and pressed forward,
vowing to try to be honest with him the rest of the day.

My mom was asleep in her bed and I left her a banana, a box of
raisins and a bottle of water. Marie was asleep, her music playing and would
sleep until late in the afternoon. I was surprised she was home, but I suppose
she couldn’t go out to Danielle’s house every evening. Her parents might
notice. Maybe I should have been worried that my mother or Marie would check on
me. According to Victor, we had too much to do and he didn’t seem too concerned
if we were caught out.

We met with Nathan in the woods behind my house. He was kicking at
some leaves near the wood slab bridge. When he heard us coming, he looked up,
smiling.

“Got everything?” he asked me.

I nodded, hiking my book bag up on my shoulders. They’d warned me
to bring anything I’d needed as we might swim at some point. There wasn’t much
in my bag except for a change of underwear and the charger for my phone. I had
the phone tucked into my bra.

Kota, Silas, North and Luke would be gone for most of the day at
the diner. They were going to be putting in a new floor, bringing in tables and
overseeing the installation of a new walk-in freezer and other equipment.

Nathan reached for my hand, wrapping his fingers around mine.
“Let’s get going. I left Gabriel at my house.”

Victor trailed behind us, and my heart weighed with the guilt of
the terrible morning we’d had. I wanted to take it all back. I was worried he
didn’t like me now.

We walked through the woods to Nathan’s backyard. Nathan led the
way to his back porch and opened the sliding glass door for me and Victor.

Victor walked around us, collapsing onto the leather couch.
Gabriel was sitting on one end. He handed off a controller to Victor. I caught
Soul Caliber, a fighting game, on the wide screen TV. The couch was wide enough
that all four of us could sit. Victor scooted closer to Gabriel and let go of
the controller long enough to pat the seat next to him, his eyes expectant on
mine.

Relief flooded through me. He wasn’t going to stay mad at me, at
least.

I dropped my book bag on the floor by the foot of the couch and
sat down next to Victor. Nathan sat on the edge, putting one arm on the armrest
and stretching to put his other arm on the couch over my shoulders. His fingers
dropped over my collarbone.

I willed my heart to stop fluttering so much.

“When are we going?” Gabriel asked, clicking buttons on the
controller. I wasn’t able to tell which fighter he was. They were both about
half drained of health according to the screen.

“When the stores open, I guess,” Victor said. “Around nine or ten
or so.”

I squinted at them. It was barely dawn now. “You guys wanted me
come over this early?”

Victor shrugged. “Had something else to do today?”

“No,” I said. “I was just wondering.”

Victor cursed under his breath as Gabriel’s fighter kicked his
hard enough to knock him out of the setting and end the battle. The big flat
screen television flashed with blood and gore from Victor’s fighter. Victor
patted my knee, grinning. “You can come over when you want, you know,” he said.
“You don’t have to wait for an invitation all the time.”

I blushed, knowing if it were up to me, I’d never leave. “Meh, you
guys will get sick of me eventually.” I meant it to be funny and cracked a
smile.

Nathan’s hand lifted from my shoulder and he chopped me on the
head. “Shut up,” he said.

“What did I tell you?” Gabriel said. “See what I mean? She does do
that girl shit. I knew it.”

I blinked in surprise, unsure of what they meant. “I’m sorry,” I
said quietly, blushing.

“You were doing that thing where a girl disses herself to get more
compliments,” he said.

“That’s not why she said it,” Nathan said. “She doesn’t like
attention.”

“What do you mean?” Gabriel asked, resetting the game.

“Don’t you see her at school? She practically hides behind us.
She’s totally oblivious when the guys are trying to make eye contact in class.”

My eyes popped open. “What? When do they do that?”

“See?”

Gabriel pointed a finger in my direction. “Just don’t say shit like
that. That stuff drives me crazy. I can’t stand it when I’m telling a girl
she’s pretty and she’s just giving me a load of insecure bullshit.”

I wondered if this was similar to what Silas was saying about the
pouting and Gabriel asking me not to do it, but I didn’t know what to say to
test it. I also wondered what girls he was telling such things to.

Victor sighed heavily, sitting back against the cushion of the
couch. “Stop it. Sang’s not like that.”

“Gotta stop that stuff before it becomes a habit,” he said.

Victor passed the controller to me. “Your turn,” he said. He
patted my leg and got up, walking around the couch to head to a part of the
house I couldn’t see.

I picked up the controller, rubbing my thumbs over the buttons,
feeling the warmth of Victor’s hands still on the smooth plastic. He didn’t
hate me.

“You know how to play?” Gabriel asked.

I sat back on the couch, pulling a knee up to my chest, the other
up against the couch in a half cross legged position so my feet were off the
floor. “A little.” Total lie. The closest I got to a video game was watching
one on television or on the rare occasions I could get on the home computer.
Most of the time though I was so busy downloading new music that I didn’t waste
a moment with a game. I wasn’t familiar with Soul Caliber and had no idea which
character was better. I picked a scary looking one that resembled a zombie
pirate.

Gabriel picked one of the girls in a skimpy outfit and half of her
breasts hanging out. He pushed the button for the game to start.

“Kick his ass, Sang,” Nathan said. He lifted his hand from around
my shoulder, folded his arms at his chest and leaned back to watch.

I pushed the buttons for my character to move across the screen,
smashing buttons to get him to jump and do random attacks. I really wasn’t
fighting as much as I was trying to figure out what the different buttons did.
Still, I was scoring some hits against Gabriel.

We were halfway through when Victor came back with a bottle of
Starbucks Frappuccino in his hands. He snapped the top open and stood over his
old spot. Victor bent over, putting his fingers on my leg that had taken up
space. “Move for a second.”

“Sorry,” I said, lifting my knee until it was pressed up against
my body to get it out of the way.

“No hang on.” He sat down again, holding his drink up. He reached
out for my knee, putting his hand on it and guided it until it was resting
against his thigh and he left his hand hanging on my leg. “There,” he said.

Victor had distracted me badly and now it was even worse as it
felt like I had my leg in his lap. His hand was on my inside knee. My heart
thumped and I wasn’t even watching the game anymore. My eyes kept going to his
hand.

“Hang in there, Sang,” Nathan said.

“I’m trying.” I started smashing all of the buttons at the same
time. My zombie pirate did some special move I managed to unlock and drove a
sword into the girl. It was enough to get Gabriel’s girl to die and the game
ended.

“Ha!” Victor laughed. He held up his coffee in salute.

“How’d you do that?” Gabriel asked, pushing a button to skip the
replay of the fight.

I shrugged, blushing. “Don’t know. Smash all the buttons?” I
passed the controller over to Nathan, looking at him. “Playing?”

Nathan’s fingers brushed against mine as he took the controller
from me. He scooted until he was sitting at the edge of the couch, putting his
elbows on his knees as he played.

Victor held out his half-finished coffee to me. “Want some?”

I shook my head. “I’ve never had coffee. It’s bitter, isn’t it?”

They all laughed. Victor pushed the edge of the glass bottle to my
hand. “Try a sip.” I hesitated and he grinned at me. “It’s sweet. There’s
chocolate in this. It’s a mocha.”

I took it, wrapping my fingers around the chilled bottle. The
condensation on the outside of the bottle wet my hands. I held it to my lips,
letting the coffee wash over my tongue. It was almost like milk with a unique
additional taste in it and a hint of chocolate. I licked my upper lip after.
“It’s not bad,” I said.