Aftermath (18 page)

When I opened them, a
new teacher had come into the room. He was a younger man with a pile
of manila folders and papers in his arms. He dropped the load on
Rachel’s desk, adjusted his sweater-vest and then faced the class.
“Hello, I’m Mr. Cary. Sorry about the wait, Ms. Vitale had an
emergency and I will be your sub for today.”

The general mood of the
class uplifted at the mention of “sub.” Everyone’s except mine.
And maybe Luke’s. It was just too much of coincidence with the way
she had been acting lately. With the way everyone had been acting
lately. I managed to exchange a questionable glance with Luke and
then half-heartedly listened to the substitute teacher’s
instructions for that day. I added Rachel to the list of things I had
to figure out and started jotting down notes as furiously as he was
writing them on the board.

I somberly walked out
of the girls’ locker room after my last class. Hayden was nowhere
in sight. I checked my phone and still nothing. Now I was really
starting to worry.

“Do you want to hear
my theories?” Luke appeared at my side, causing me to misstep and
nearly knocking me over into the line of guys leaving the boys'
locker room.

I adjusted the strap of
my bag slung over my shoulders. “No.” I didn’t know whether to
be more worried or relieved that Luke didn’t know where Hayden was,
either.

“C’mon love, I’ll
tell you on the drive home.”

I walked in the
opposite direction, hoping to find Marie or Nikki. “No, thanks. My
friends are coming over after school so I’ll just get a ride with
them.”

Of course I didn’t
get off that easily and Luke walked beside me back into the school.
“I’m guessing from your demeanor that Hayden hasn’t called you
since he left early this morning?”

I scoffed. I wondered
if Luke would ever get tired of the one-sided conversations.

“Which must mean that
he must be with Tatiana who came in town last night.”

Now Luke was making up
girls to turn me against Hayden? He was really starting to irritate
me but that was what he wanted, wasn’t it? To get a rise out of me?
“Never heard of her,” I said indifferently.

Luke mocked being
appalled. “You mean Hayden never told you about the Russian
princess who’s madly in love with him?”

I stopped walking and
my hands balled into fists. “You’re lying.”

“Me? Lie?” He
leaned toward my ear as he ‘tsked me. “You know I have never lied
to you.” And I was pretty sure he hadn’t. Either way, he must
have known this piece of timely information would feed right into the
part of me that was completely impulsive and irrational. “Why don’t
you call him and ask him yourself?” I turned to face him. Darkened
hazel eyes looked up at me through lowered brows. “Oh, that’s
right, he’s not answering is he?”
because he’s hiding
something
laced his last words.

“I hate you,” I
whispered spitefully.

He gave me that cocky,
one-sided smile that probably brought men and women alike to their
knees. “Well, you know what they say, love and hate both stem from
the same place.”

I tried to think of a
smart reply to that but I came up with nothing. I just kept thinking
about the first time Luke revealed his true feelings for me on the
beach in Tampa. I think my exact words were,
“...but I thought
you hated me?”
and then he told me he loved me. And then he
kissed me. And I kissed him back.

“Rrg!” I grunted my
frustration and left him standing alone in the hallway with that
stupid smile on his face. “You’re delusional!” I said over my
shoulder as I made my way to Nikki’s locker.

“See you at home,
love!” Luke said with amusement in his voice, loud enough for
everyone to hear.

“Thanks for the
ride, Marie,” I said as I threw my book bag on the bed in my room.

“No problem, we were
coming over anyway.”
What happened to Hayden?
, were her
unspoken words.

“So, I knew you
wouldn’t have a whole lot to go off of, so I brought some cute
Ecole T-shirts; do you have some blue leggings, those would be
perfect
?” Nikki’s voice faded as she entered my closet to
help me pick clothes to wear for my appearance on the float. Attire
would be ‘anything goes’ as long as it was in the school spirit.
Masks were required and I wondered what she had in mind for that.

“Check the built-in
drawers on the left,” I told her, still unsure of the extent of my
own wardrobe. Hayden had my room and bathroom stocked with everything
I never had. As much as I was grateful, I was overwhelmed. Nikki,
with her passion for clothes and candy, helped me put it to good use.

As Nikki raided my
closet and Marie my books, I was thinking about how I would get
through tonight without Hayden. I had hoped he would at least call me
by the time the parade started. But all I was doing was hoping.
Hoping he would be home. Hoping he’d call. Hoping he’d still love
me. What was that about? Surely, people in normal relationships
didn’t think those sorts of things. Then again, nothing about my
relationship with Hayden was normal. How was it that I was able to
manage life without him just fine six months ago? Very dully, but
fine. Now it was if he had become so entwined in my life that I
couldn’t think without him. He had truly come to possess me. As
much I told myself I was just worried about his safety, there was
that insecure part of me that said he had left me, that he had just
changed his mind and left me. It concerned me most of all because
this was a time when I was questioning my love for someone else, and
it didn’t help that I was also questioning his love for me.

“Hello, space case?”
Nikki took the cherry sucker out of her mouth with a plop. “What
are you thinking about?”

“Hm, I wonder what?”
Marie had found a book that piqued her interest and sprawled out on
my bed to read. There was humor in her voice and I was glad to hear
that things were almost back to normal between us after the night we
opened her voodoo chest. “Or whom?” She let out a girlish giggle
that was completely unlike her.

Her mood made me feel
playful, and I picked up the nearest thing, a tube of mascara, and
chucked it at her.

“Hey,” she squealed
and snapped the book shut.

I smiled and turned
back around on the stool of my vanity. I looked at Nikki through the
mirror as she emerged from my closet, saying, “I was trying to get
your opinion on an outfit before you spaced out on me. Now you will
just have to try all of them on.” She threw a sizeable load of
clothes on my bed and I groaned quietly. She came up to me at the
vanity, beaming at my supply of products. “I get to do the makeup,
Marie you can do something with,” she fluffed my hair, “all of
this.”

“Hey,” I protested
at her playful insult.

Marie sat up from my
bed and came to join us at the vanity. We looked at each other in the
mirror for a while before Nikki said, “Let’s get to work!”

When I finally was free from the
grasps of my well-intentioned friends, I looked at my phone.

6:32PM.
No missed calls. No new texts messages.

I wondered how I would
be able to bring my cell phone with to the parade. I couldn’t bring
a purse and with the outfit Nikki had picked out for me, there was
not an inch of clothing that wasn’t clinging to my skin. I gave one
last longing look to my phone before leaving it on the charger by my
bed.

As I walked down the
curving staircase, I heard Nikki’s laughter mixing with Luke’s
seductive voice.
Great
, what now?

“What’s a great
idea?” I asked, jumping in on their conversation.

Luke turned toward me
with a wicked smile that could only mean he was up to something.

“Luke’s going to
give us a ride to the parade,” Nikki spoke for him, totally buying
into his plot.

“Well, I was going
anyway so I thought it would make sense if we all just rode
together.” I totally saw past Luke’s feigned innocence at this
coincidence. He was motivated, and now I knew he was calculating as
well.

I looked at Marie to
see if she had bought in as easily as Nikki had. She shrugged. “It
would save me gas.” Her face was apologetic.

My teeth sunk into my
lower lip as I gave Luke a deadpan expression. I could drive myself,
but I didn't think they would let that fly. Nikki had already deemed
me a flight risk. And it wasn’t like I would be spending time with
Luke; we wouldn’t even be alone. I had to be on the float 45
minutes before the parade started so they would have to drop me off
at the warehouse, anyway. I guess it would be okay for Luke to look
after them while I was in the parade…

“Fine,” I conceded.

Luke gave me a
victorious, closed-mouth smile and held out his hand to lead us
toward the garage.

Nikki continued her
conversation with Marie as they started toward the garage. As I went
to follow them, Luke stopped me. I stared at his hand curled around
my arm, acutely aware of his touch.

When I looked up at
him, his eyes became stormy. He licked his lips and then bent down to
whisper in my ear. The heat of his breath tickled the sensitive area
of my neck as he whispered, “ You can’t expect me to play nice
when you wear something like that. I’m afraid I simply won’t be
able to keep my hands off of you.”

My jaw dropped open.
His words appalled me—and at the same time excited me.

I recovered my
composure. “You'd better keep your hands off me, unless you want me
to break your fingers.” I gave him my best menacing smile. Where
was this side of me coming from? Strangely, I knew.

“Ohh,” his chest
rumbled with laughter. “Is that a threat or a promise?”

“Both,” I snapped
as he slowly made his way around to my other ear. This had to stop.

“I look forward to
any time where you touch me.” He had circled me, like he was a
vulture and I was his prey.

“You’re
disgusting!”

“We’ll talk more of
what I am later, love. Right now, your friends are waiting.” At his
last words, he left me there in the hallway, weak-kneed and boiling
with anger.

“No, we will not talk
about this later!” I called after him, but it was too late, I had
already heard the door to the garage open. And he'd had the last
word.

I uttered a minced
oath, blew a curl out of my face and stubbornly followed him out.

Five minutes later, I
was in the garage standing outside Luke’s truck. Luke had started
the truck, and Nikki and Marie were already in the backseat. There
was no way I was going to sit next to him, regardless of his plans. A
thought occurred to me and I opened the back door to meet their
confused faces. I smirked and squished myself in.

“There’s no way I’m
sitting up here alone like I’m some damned driver,” Luke
protested, looking irritated that his plan had backfired on him.

I tried to contain my
laughter. “The car doesn’t drive itself. And if you’re not up
for the job, we’d be happy to drive ourselves.”

“You know that’s
not what I meant.” He gave me a long look in the rearview mirror.
“You know I’ll take what I can get, Ana.” And he pulled the
gear into drive.

I was acutely aware of
Luke’s gaze on me the entire ride. I squirmed in my seat at the
reflection of his intense hazel eyes and tried to pay attention to
the story Nikki was telling us.

I caught the tail end
of her sentence when I suddenly wished I had heard the whole thing.
“She won’t mind that you are going with us?” Nikki had asked
Luke.

“Wait, what?” I
gripped the seat in front of me. “Who won’t mind?”

“Hello—Stephanie?
Luke was supposed to be going to the parade with her. For her.”
Nikki looked up thoughtfully. “I’m not really sure how that works
since she is going to be on the float with you.”

“
What?
” I
was stunned with both pieces of new information. I didn’t know why
I hadn’t thought of it before. Of course Stephanie would be on the
Ecole float since she was also running for Queen. But Luke on the
other hand… I thought he had ended it with her. I didn’t know
why, but lately I was more repelled by her than before. I really
meant it when I told Luke 'anyone but her.' I didn’t trust her one
bit. Something about her, besides her usual cruelness, just rubbed me
the wrong way.

We pulled up to the
warehouse where the floats were stored before the parade. I was a
little disappointed that we had arrived already and I wouldn’t be
able to finish the conversation.

“Oh my God, we’re
here. Good luck, Ana!” Marie reached over and squeezed my arm. I
was glad someone was nervous for me.

“Nah, who needs good
luck? She looks great if I do say so myself!” Nikki was proud of
her makeup job. I was really impressed as well. It was like she was
an artist and my face was her canvas. Instead of a mask, Nikki had
painted one on my face. It was subtle but the butterfly wings made my
eyes look exotic. I could hardly believe it was my reflection staring
back when I had first looked at myself in the mirror.