Fighting Destiny (Central Coven) (13 page)

My intention was to go into my room, and invite Finn over if Anita and Dean were occupying his room.  Well damn her; she had other plans.  She knew I would be more comfortable in my own room.  I suppose she also thought that if I were in his room something might happen between the two of us.  She taped a note to the door in bright pink paper that said, “Don’t be mad at me.  I’ll talk to you later.  Have fun, Anita.” 

“She is just hilarious.  Now what do I do?” I thought aloud.  “Come over to my room.  I won’t bite, but…maybe that is what you are in to these days,” Finn teased.  “Oh so you are a comedian too.  Well, maybe I don’t want to come to your room now,” I said and stubbornly crossed my arms across my chest. 

“Like that is going to work,” Finn said laughing.   Finn took a step towards me with a mischievous grin playing on his face.  “Finn, what are you up to?  Finn?”  He laughed again, and took another step toward me.  I stood still and held my breath. 

One more step and he was standing near me, towering over my five foot five frame.  I could feel his heart rate racing in the small space that still existed between us.  I released one hesitant breath and he reached up slowly, and stroked my face.  Why was I letting this happen?  I am so weak. 

Suddenly, he swept me up into his arms and tossed me over his shoulder.  Before I had time to think he had his door open and just as quickly he kicked it shut.  Finn tossed me down on his bed and climbed down on top of me.  We stared at each other for a long time, running our hands on each other’s arms, backs, in each other’s hair, and on each other’s faces.  He leaned forward to kiss me, I closed my eyes, felt the warmth of his breath on my gently parted lips, and then my phone rang.

“Don’t answer it,” Finn insisted.  “It’ll just take a second,” I told him.  Finn groaned and rolled off me while I grabbed my phone.  “Hello,” I answered breathless.  “Hello darling,” spoke Grey’s cool voice.  My heart began to race a guilty rhythm.  “How is Spain?”  I asked getting up to stand by the window.  Finn cast me a dirty look, but I think I caught a hint of hurt cross his face.

“Spain is going well, I have the book and will be catching a plane at nightfall.”  “How are you awake right now?  I thought you had to sleep during the day?”  “No, I have to stay out of the sun. I only rest a few hours.  Did I interrupt something; I hear breathing in the background?”  Stupid vampire hearing.  “I’m hanging out with Finn,” I answered truthfully.  “Mmmm. I see.  Will I see you when I return?”  “If you want to,” I answered hesitantly.  “We haven’t had
that
talk have we? Whether we are exclusive or not,”  Grey pointed out.  “No.  I’m not really sure what I want right now either.  I’m not trying to hurt you, but I’m trying not to assume anything.  We have only gone out once, and that was a spontaneous thing.”

“I do want to see you when I am back in town, at least to talk,” Grey replied.  “Alright.  You always seem to know how to find me.”  “That is true, but given current circumstances I don’t think I will just drop by.”  “That’s fair.  I will see you tomorrow then?”  “I’ll call you. Good bye until then,” Grey said and hung up.

Finn was leaning against his desk with his legs crossed and stretched out.  I walked up to him.  His blue eyes were burning in the dark.  “Finn,” I began.  He put his hand up to stop me.  I grabbed his hand, and laced my fingers in with his.  “Finn, I’m sorry.  I don’t know what I want right now.”  “You want to be with me, right?” he asked.  “Yes,” my voice was barely a whisper.  “But you want him too, don’t you?”  “I’m sorry,” was all I could say.  Finn just nodded his head.  “He knows you are here with me?”  “Yes.”  “Then be with me,” Finn said. 

“No.  I mean, I’ve never, uhm, you know,” I fumbled embarrassed.  “Sorry, I know it sounded like…that wasn’t what I meant.” Finn said and kissed the top of my head.  “Then what did you mean?” I asked, looking up at him through my eyelashes.  “I mean, when you are here with me, stop thinking about him, stop worrying, and let yourself feel what you are feeling.”  I laughed, and kissed him on the cheek.  “Silly. I was already doing that.”

“Kiss me,” Finn said.  “I really want to, but I need to figure out my feelings.  I don’t want to hurt you.  I shouldn’t be dating both of you at the same time.”  “But you can see we aren’t just friends,” Finn argued.  “Yes, I can see that,” I answered him.  “Okay, for right now, let’s just watch a movie,” he suggested. 

Finn put in a cheesy horror movie.  I don’t scare easy, but I also don’t enjoy watching gore.  I buried my face in his chest, “Finn!  Are you sure about this movie?”  “Positive,” he laughed and patted my hair.  I said I wouldn’t kiss him, but I said nothing about snuggling deep into his strong arms.  Maybe I could learn to like horror movies. 

The morning light was shining through the parted curtains.  I blinked my still groggy eyes several times to focus them.  Funny, I don’t remember returning to my room.  Anita stood staring down at me with an exceptionally smug look on her face.  Dean stood behind her with his arms locked around her tiny waist.  “We thought it would be funny to kick you out of your room for a few hours to force you both to make up. I didn’t think you would kick me out of mine all night long.  Not that I’m not complaining,” Dean said and gave Anita a little squeeze picking her up off the floor.

That explains why I can’t remember going back to my room, because I didn’t.  Finn tightened his hold on me, not a bad feeling.  “Good morning,” he said, ignoring Dean and Anita.  “Good morning.  Why didn’t you wake me up?” I asked. 

He smiled, a bright, heart-melting smile I have never been able to resist.  Pushing my tangled hair out of my face he said, “I tried, but once
you
fall asleep a herd of elephants couldn’t wake you.”  I felt my cheeks turn red. “I am so embarrassed.”  “I’m not.  I wish I could spend every night like that,” Finn said and cradled my face in his large hands.

“Are you two going to get up some time today?  Or do we need to bring you back some breakfast?” Anita joked.  Finn tossed his leg over me trapping me under him.  “I don’t feel like getting up,” Finn replied.   “I’m actually starving, and I have a wicked kink in my back from sleeping in a twin bed with your six foot self.  I could really use some food and a walk around campus.  Wadd’ya say?” I proposed.

Anita grabbed my arm and pulled before Finn could talk me into staying.  “Agreed, lets get dressed, Chloë.  Your hair is going to take hours with a brush or a double dose of magic to get those tangles out.  Get movin’ chica!  We don’t have all day.”

“I’m coming, don’t get all worked up,” I groaned.  I leaned over and kissed Finn on the cheek.  “I will see you in a little while for breakfast.”  “Can’t wait,” he whispered, then he grabbed me and kissed me softly on the lips. 

“You are quite the meddler aren’t you,” I accused Anita when we were alone in our room.  “Well come on Chloë. I wanted to be alone with Dean and it was too tense to be around the two of you the way things were.  So we figured you two would either kiss and make up, or figure out how to be friends.  Looks to me like you kissed and made up,” she said on the verge of doing a victory dance. 

I sat down quickly on the edge of my bed.  “I’m scared because I want him desperately.  Not just physically, but that feeling is so overwhelming sometimes it is all I can think about.  Mostly, I feel like I need him, and I have made a point out of not needing anyone.”  “I guess the question is what are you going to do about it?” Anita asked.  I shrugged. 

“The only thing I can do.  I’m going to break things off with Grey.  He is a great guy, and we have good chemistry, but I
am
falling in love with Finn.  As scared as I am, I have to see this through.”  “I’m glad to hear you are coming to your senses.  Now, seriously lets get you in the shower and do something about your hair.  I keep expecting birds to fly out of there.”  “You are so funny!”  I said and I threw a pillow at her.  Naturally, since she is a vampire she dodged it with lightning fast reflexes, and stuck her tongue out at me. 

I grabbed all of my toiletries and headed into the girls shower.  After two weeks I had already picked out my favorite shower stall, which is an oxymoron, because I hate showering in the school dorm.  I moved to the last shower in the row of four.  That was the one where you could hang up your towel without it getting wet, and the curtain closed all the way.  The drain sloped away from that stall, so the soapy water from anyone else showering doesn’t pool where you stand. 

I set my clean clothes on the bench outside of the showers, slipped out of my dirty ones, put on my robe, and slipped into my shower slippers.  I hate showering in shoes.  I brought all of my toiletries down to my preferred stall, and set down my shower basket.  I turned on the water, trying to wash quickly before the luke-warm water turned cold.  I slid around in my anti-microbial shower sandals as they filled with water, shampoo, conditioner, and body wash.  I tried to resist the urge to shave too quickly.  It was always a delicate task, balancing on one slippery foot, while cold, and trying not to cut myself.  I finished rinsing myself off just as the water temperature began to turn icy.

The tiled floor is very slippery outside of the showers. It makes changing risky when you are racing to preserve some modesty trying to dry off and dress yourself around strangers.  I towel dried my hair, and contrary to Anita’s ribbing, easily ran a brush through it.  I created large curls with my fingers.  I brushed my teeth, and put on the bare minimum make up.  Some clear lip-gloss, violet colored eye shadow, mascara, and plum colored blush.

I gave myself an admiring glance in the mirror.  Not bad for thirty minutes.  I shoved my dirty clothes, towel and robe into my dirty linens bag and deposited my makeup and toiletries into my shower basket and headed out of the bathroom.  “Look, she doesn’t even wear much make-up,” Cynthia whispered to one of her friends from behind me.  “And look her hair is still wet,” her friend answered back.  “I don’t know she looks natural.  I’d do her,” one of the football players from the night before chimed in.  “Well who asked you!” Cynthia screeched.  I laughed to myself and walked down the hall with a little more swing in my hips.  I would have to tell Anita about that.

I walked into my room and described the encounter with Cynthia to Anita.  Anita stopped rearranging her purse.  “That girl is nuts!  What is she doing on the third floor?  Do you think she is stalking Finn? I don’t think she has ever been rejected until now.”  “Yeah, she’s probably waiting for Finn the way she was
casually
loitering in the hall.”

“She has to see you are prettier than she is.  I know she is stupid, but that stupid?” Anita criticized.  “I don’t think appearance is that important.  I mean she would be pretty if she laid off all the make-up, and wore some clothes.  I mean
come on,
leave something to the imagination you know?  But her personality is ugly,” I added.  “Well she better not decide to go after Dean, or I’ll bite her.”  “I guess she is just lucky she isn’t
that
stupid.”

“Who is stupid?” Dean asked walking into our room.  I turned to Anita confused.  He stood in the middle of the floor jingling her keys.  “Thank God!” Anita squealed.  For a strong, smart, independent woman, she could be a bit of a ditz sometimes.  “Leave something?” Dean asked sarcastically.  “Yes thank you, I have been looking for those everywhere.”  “So who is stupid,” Dean asked again.  “Oh Cynthia couldn’t resist commenting about Chloë when she got out of the bathroom.  She is all pissed off because Chloë doesn’t wear a lot of make-up, and one of her bed-buddies said he’d ‘do her’,” Anita told him. 

“Well don’t tell Finn that,” Dean said seriously.  “Too late.  I already heard you.  Funny how my hearing has gotten so much sharper.”  Finn closed the door, and moved over to me.  He whispered to me, “He can’t have you.”  His eyes burned like a blue flame.  “You’re mine,” he continued. 

“Finn,” I began.  Finn put his hand up to stop me from saying anything else. “I know Chloë.  You don’t have to tell me again that you don’t know what you want okay.  I can wait, but even if you aren’t mine now, you will be. I can feel it.”

I smirked, “Well, if you can feel it.  Seriously though, Finn, I’m not saying no, or even that I don’t feel the same way.  I just want to be sure.”  “Sure of how you feel about me?” Finn asked concerned.  “No, I know how I feel about you.” “I see, you want to be sure of how I feel about you.” I nodded slightly.  “I guess I deserve that.  I’ll do my best to prove to you how I feel.”

He moved toward me stealthily, and I laughed.  “Come on guys I’m hungry,” Anita protested.  Finn grabbed me and pulled me to him, and I decided I was going to kiss him when Anita began throwing pillows.  “There will be time for that after we have breakfast.”  I laughed, “Come on, we don’t want her to bite us if she gets too hungry.” 

Finn made a noise that was part groan part growl, “We always get interrupted.”  “We will have time later,” I assured him staring into his deep blue eyes.  “Before or after you meet with the vampire?” he asked annoyed.  “Before and after,” I told him. 

“You are still going to meet with him?” he asked astounded.  “I need to tell him I have made up my mind.  Also I need to get the spell book from him.  Therefore, yeah I’m still going to meet with him,” I explained.  “I hate this,” Finn said with his eyes shut.  “I know, buy you just have to trust me,” I urged.  “I will.  Let’s go eat.”

Dean and Anita had gotten fed up waiting for us, and left while we were still talking in my room.  “Do you think they saved us a seat,” I asked him.  “I don’t know.  I think we were getting on Anita’s nerves,” Finn said laughing.  We got into the line at the entrance to the dining hall, and handed the cashier our student ID cards to be charged for our meal plans.