Accessory: The Scarab Beetle Series: #4 (The Academy) (32 page)

“Raven,” I said, my heart crumpling into a thousand pieces. I didn’t want to beg but my lip trembled and I was scared to death of losing him.

“I love Axel,” he said quietly. “It’s the only reason he isn’t dead right now.”

I closed my eyes, shaking my head. “Don’t say that.”

“Has he pressured you before?”

My head shot up, surprised. “Huh?”

“I didn’t hear what he said, but Corey told me it sounded like Axel was over...over-bear-ning.”

“Overbearing?”

“Same. He said you cried.”

Axel probably did sound pretty aggressive. And if they thought he’d made me cry, then...oh god. Maybe that’s why Axel had to get away from me. The boys had overheard. They ganged up on him to leave me alone.

What a mess. What had I done?

I breathed out slowly, folding my arms across my stomach, simply trying to hold myself together. “Raven...”

Raven marched forward, away from the door. His arms went around my waist, hugging me to him. He ignored the juice and coffee mess and simply held on. “You turned him down, but you didn’t say anything about me. I understand. Too soon. I knew Marc liked you. I didn’t know about Axel. But Axel shouldn’t use his position to put you in a relationship with him.”

I didn’t have an answer for him. I don’t know what the boys talked about and what they thought had happened. I needed to fix this but I didn’t know what Corey said to them about what he heard. “Don’t blame Axel. Please. It’s really a misunderstanding. Where is Axel now?”

“He’s doing his job. Brandon’s going to follow him for now since we switched.”

“We can’t just avoid Axel. I can’t. He’s my boyfriend for this trip.” I didn’t know what to do. Raven had isolated us to talk about it. I needed to talk to Corey and clear things up with him. I didn’t want to make things worse by talking about Axel before I had that chance.

“Right now you need to go help Marc.” He hugged me tighter and then released me, kissed my cheek and then guided me to the door. “I have to cover Kevin.”

I sighed, letting him show me the way. I didn’t want to leave anyone alone. I couldn’t believe what they were thinking and how they all must have been in crazy turmoil over it. There was nothing I or Axel could do to explain it yet.

I should have said I’d stay at home instead of going on this trip. The problems were piling up around me. The boat hadn’t even taken off yet.

HOT BATH

R
aven guided me to the spa. It had a frosted glass front door, with a single line of Japanese characters etched into the middle. There was nothing else on that side of the hallway. Whatever this spa was, it took up a lot of space. It was oddly cut off from the rest of the ship, and seemed isolated even just in the hallway.

When Raven opened the door, we were immediately greeted by a woman who had been standing just inside, as if expecting us. She wore a blue kimono, the print had pink cranes and a water lily garden. She held on to a woven sweetgrass basket, like the ones they sold in downtown Charleston. She was Asian, and her dark hair was combed back and pinned with hair sticks. She bowed. “Yes? May I help you?”

“Kitty Lane,” Raven said. “She has an appointment for a hot bath.”

“Kitty Lane,” the woman said and bowed her head again, holding out the basket. Inside was a selection of gold wrapped candies. I took one, mostly to be polite. “Please,” she said. “Women to the right.”

The room had a large rock face fountain built into the floor, looking like a pond. There was a man-made brook that trickled down the rocks in the wall. The large feature divided the space. The rest of the walls and floor were the same pale wood, making the pond the one and only focal point. There were open hallways to the left and right. No desk. There were short benches near the door on either side, and near those were racks of shoe shelves. Three pairs on the men’s side. None on the women’s.

I went to the women’s side, taking off my shoes and then removing my socks, too, since those were wet and I didn’t want to mess up the floor. I balled them up, with the tape still inside them, and put them in the shoes. I passed them to Raven. “I can’t wear these,” I said. “Will you let Fancy know that I am in need of more clothes?”

He nodded and took the shoes. “I’ll have some brought up for you.”

I shared a look with Raven:
I’m so sorry for this mess. I wish I could talk.

He didn’t say anything, and gave no indication as to his mood.

“Would you like to follow me?” The woman in the kimono said. She made sweeping hand movements. “Please?”

I did, looking back longingly to Raven. I was totally not wanting a bath right now. I needed one and was a mess, but whatever this was, I suspected there was more to it than a tub for washing my body.

Raven stood by the door, looking solemn. We both had jobs to do, though. We didn’t have the time. He couldn’t escort me through the women’s side, and Marc was probably already in this hot bath.

The Asian woman escorted me, motioning with her hand over and over again to continue. She had me walk ahead of her and we and ended up in locker room. The woman then jumped ahead of me and stopped me before I stepped on the white tiles. Everything in the room was white and tiled, if it wasn’t a bench or locker. The walls were tiled, which was weird. Maybe it was easier to clean.

I didn’t know why she stopped me until she pointed down. There was a bucket filled with flip flops, all the same size right near the entryway. She selected a pair and held them at my feet for me to step into. “We wear these in the shower room,” she said.

I stepped into the shoes, and she adjusted them on my feet. Awkward. They were flimsy and pink, a disposable, one size fits all type. Why did they have me take off my shoes just to put on new ones?

The lockers were painted white. There were low benches near the lockers. Nothing fancy. Where was this bath?

“Wear these everywhere in here,” she said. She pointed to the far side of the locker room to a basket by the door. Deposit them over there.” She motioned to a row of showers. “Get undressed, wash and shower and then there are towels to wrap yourself in before you go outside. I’ll get you kimono if you like.”

“Outside?” I asked.

“The baths are outdoors,” she said. “We don’t wear clothes into the bath. There is a wall to separate the men from the women.”

Well, then what was the point of me being here? I wasn’t sure I wanted to get naked to get into the hot bath and just sit there. Did I have to talk to them through the wall? If Marc and Blake were talking to this guy, why was I here? Maybe I should focus on someone else if they were already getting friendly with whoever was there.

The woman encouraged me onward. I thought she was going to stay right there until I actually did everything she said. Once I was at the lockers, I turned to ask her about wearing the shoes in the shower, but she had disappeared.

I unraveled the candy in my hand, a butterscotch. I popped it into my mouth, the noise echoing in the large empty room. The air was chilly, too. I scanned the room, detecting areas I couldn’t see behind, like more lockers, and walked around, looking for other people. I knew there weren’t any but I was paranoid.

I debated simply leaving but I was in need of a shower anyway. Maybe I’d drown and die before I could become any more embarrassed by the boys or do any more harm.

What was wrong with me? Why did I keep thinking like that?

I wished I didn’t have to be here just now. I wished Corey was there to talk to, so I could straighten out the mess.

I found the towels, undressed and put my dress and glasses in the locker. My flip flops smacked loudly against the tile as I moved around, the sound reverberating in the quiet room.

I showered, rinsing off the coffee and juice and used some of the provided soap to make sure I was clean. I didn’t wash my hair. There wasn’t any shampoo, just soap.

When I was done, I went to the door. Shouldn’t I have a bathing suit? If there was a wall, I guess it didn’t matter. Nude bathing. I tried to picture it, recalling movies with Japanese or Roman baths. I didn’t think they still did that.

Next to the exit to the hot baths, there were baskets with small towels, just big enough to put around your waist, some hair ties and additional slippers. Outside slippers. There was a second empty basket marked for bathroom slippers. I took the bathroom slippers off and put the new ones on. Slippers for everything.

I took one of the hair ties, too. I pulled my hair back into a bun. I was going for a look more than anything else, just in case someone walked in, I still needed to look like Kitty, the little nerd girl. I tugged out a few strands, framing my face.

Then I thought about the glasses. I went back for them, bypassing doing the slipper routine. I put on the glasses and headed out, wrapped up in the bath towel.

There was a narrow beige tile foot path between bamboo fences, and along the side of the path was a rock bed with various blue and white flowers of different colors growing between the rocks. The whole scene shifted from cold locker room to beautiful garden, and natural surroundings. The style was very clean. I wondered if this really was anything like Japan.

With my skin still wet from the shower, the light autumn breeze outside chilled my body. I pulled the towel tighter around myself just to retain a bit of warmth.

The path went around the side of the spa wall, opening up slightly to a wide patio, with deck chairs, another flip flop holder, and some bins with additional towels. There was a fence surrounding the entire area, secluding bath visitors from the rest of the ship. A quiet reprieve from cruise life.

At the end of the patio was the stair that went down into water. The bath looked to be a large, curved pool, with a black bottom. Creepy. It was hard to tell how deep it was. The bath twisted around a larger part of the rock garden on the left, and then the edge of the pool stretched out to the fence on the right and out ahead of me. There were trees and rocks that looked like they encircled the entire thing. There was a rock formation in the middle of the wide bath, designed like a place to sit in the middle. I couldn’t see around the bend of the bath to the left, but I imagined it was more fence: the wall that separated men from women. A Japanese bath seemed to be more like a big, steaming swimming pool with a garden surrounding it.

I was glad there weren’t any other women here to try to make conversation with. I could get used to a place like this.

I removed the slippers, keeping them by the pool instead of putting them in the basket, and I discarded the towel near them. Maybe I could use the moment to try to recall what I’d said, and to give myself a new plan.

I stuck my foot into the water, testing it. There was a lot of heat, but with being outside in the cool fall air, I wanted the warmth.

I eased my way into the bath. There wasn’t a scent like a pool, heavy with chlorine. There was something else, a slight sulfur smell. Then the breeze picked up a little and I was smelling flowers: lilies and other sweet flowers I didn’t know the names of.

The waster was hotter the further down I dipped myself in, but I went slowly to adjust. Once I was as far as my knees, I noticed the water was colored, a green-blue hue. When I got fully in, the color hid my chest and everything down below. You could walk around without people gawking at your nakedness. Thoughtful, but still creepy. The pond-like bath made me think there might be fish. Okay, there couldn’t be, but still. I was weirded out.

Warm water felt good, a little too warm at first but I got used to it. I turned in the water, checking out the blue and white flowers blossoming. There was a bamboo fountain among the flower beds, and water sprinkled into a bowl, providing a gentle sound in the otherwise quiet area. I went to the edge of the bath, feeling the rocks along the sides that made up the natural landscaping. Then I wondered if the rocks in the middle sitting area were real or just designed to look like rock.

The bottom of the bath was a little slippery, and there was something like sand at the bottom. If I moved my foot from side to side, I could feel a pool bottom, but I could feel the sand swirling around the sides of my feet.

I didn’t like the feeling. I tried just walking on my toes, but it lifted me a bit too far out of the water and my nipples poked out. The whole bath was the same level, just high enough for you to stand in the colored water and have your shoulders out.

I lifted my feet, swimming to go around the bend so I could check out the rest of the area.

I gasped when there wasn’t a fence, like I had expected.

Around the bend, the bath opened up. There was a wall, separating the bath in two, but it was short, and only went up to just under the water line. The other half of the bath was like the women’s side, just slight differences in shape.

Blake, Marc and a third man were on the other side, sitting by the edge near the wall. Blake was sitting higher than the others, and I could see the side of his bare butt and hip as he soaked in the sun with just his legs in the water. Naked. They all had to be naked.

That thought made me almost choke.

I stopped short in a swimming stroke, and stood in the pool, covering my breasts quickly. The splash drew their attention and they all turned, including Blake. I was too far out from the bend now to go back and pretend I hadn’t been there.

I should have figured there was more to this than simply swimming alone on this side of the hot bath. There was just enough room on the women’s side to get into the pool before coming out to the open area that was in view of the men’s section. Unless you were out of the water, like Blake, you were completely covered, nothing worse than wearing a strapless dress. It was still incredibly intimidating to be nude in the water with them.

Blake did nothing to cover himself, only smiled. His hair was dry, and the longer strands swept around the nape of his neck. I didn’t see any blood and wondered if there was makeup along his neck, causing a bit of discoloration. There were tan lines at his waist and thigh. His butt was pale. I couldn’t see the front between his legs with the way he was sitting, just his hip, although I hated to admit I was curious. He sported a pack of abs, and hip lines. His wide chest and arms and his lean waist had that model-like look. “Well, well,” he said. “Kitty has come to play.”