Authors: Diana Nixon
Honestly, only one admirer came to my mind, if he could
even be called that. But judging by how glum he was when I met him only a few
minutes ago, flowers were not from him.
“How did you decide that the bouquet was meant for me at
all, if there was no note?”
“It was brought by the courier, who said that the
flowers were for you,” while continuing to mock, Amanda said.
“Next time, don’t forget to ask the sender's name,” I
said.
“Anyway, it’s so romantic!” said Anna dreamy. “Okay, I
have to go now, so I'll see you girls later,” she added, leaving us alone.
“She is funny,” I said.
“Yes, she is,” Amanda agreed. “You have no idea how much
she knows about everyone! She is throwing a party on the occasion of our
arrival. Speaking of which... Have you already decided what to wear? If not,
then I'm going shopping tomorrow and you could go with me.”
“I haven’t had time to think about it yet. And
anyway, I...”
“Almost forgot about the party,” finished for me,
Amanda, shaking her head disapprovingly.
I nodded guiltily.
“But I think the idea of shopping is not bad,” I said,
trying to gain my friend’s favour.
“Yes, but we need one of the teachers, to go with us.”
“I don’t think that this will cause any problems.
Students are allowed to leave the campus,” I said. “Besides, I can ask Evan to
accompany us. He's my teacher now. So...”
“Wait a minute, my dear friend. Did you say
Evan
?
You mean
Evan Murray
?
The very
Evan Murray?”
“I don’t know the reason of your amusement, Amanda, but
yes
,
I am talking about him. Alexis asked him to be my
personal tutor until
my basic training begins.”
“Wow! That’s crazy! And you haven’t said anything about
such news?” she protested, sitting next to me on the bed. “Do you know what
they say about him?”
“I have no idea. What?”
“That he is the coolest guy all around Dever! Well,
except for my brother, of course, but we are not talking about him right now.
So, Anna said that most girls attend all the parties just because of Evan. And
yes, I saw him. I’m speechless!” raising her eyes to the heavens, she said.
“What was there about Christian?” I asked as if by
incident.
“Well, Christian is an inaccessible dream. Again the
words of Anna, he’s not seeing anyone and indeed never gets into a serious
relationship. By the way, he and Evan are best friends. They always come
together, but unlike my brother, Evan always has fun attracting the attention
of his numerous fans.”
“Best friends, then,” I thought. Perhaps that was the
reason for Christian’s grudge. He was definitely mad at me, or rather at
us
.
Apparently, the best friend hadn’t mentioned his new pupil.
“Great,” I said exhausted and closed my eyes.
“This is exactly my point!” Amanda exclaimed. “I hope
Evan won’t miss our Friday party,” smiling dreamily, she added.
It seemed like we were talking about completely
different topics. Suddenly there was a loud ringing of her mobile phone that
made me even jump.
“Geez, Amanda, I told you to change the ringer! This one
will finish me off soon!” I snapped before I laid back on the pillow.
“Okay, okay. I just forgot about it. Hey, Christian!
Why? Okay, I’m coming.”
I needed at least a few minutes of peace and quiet.
Amanda left, but as soon as the door closed,
someone else came.
“Oh, God! Who’s there?” I thought irritably, walking to
the door.
It was Anna.
“Eileen, I just wanted to ask you about the theme of the
party,” she said apologetically, apparently noticing my annoyed expression.
“What theme?” trying to sound friendly, I asked.
“Usually, we choose something special to make the party
more interesting. I've been thinking... Maybe something in a casino style, with
tuxedos and nice cocktail dresses? There hasn’t been anything like this for a
long time already.”
“Absolutely, I think Amanda would love this idea.”
“Excellent! All the guys would love it too. There are so
many things to be done!” clapping her hands, said Anna, and walked briskly
toward her room, muttering something on the way.
In a few minutes, Amanda returned... holding another
bouquet.
“This one, I hope is for you?” I asked.
“No. Today you are a star,” she said, handing me the
flowers. “However, this time everything’s clear -
these
are from
Christian.”
Even without her explanations, I already knew that. Having
barely touched the bouquet, I immediately felt the familiar warmth.
“Too bad, I don’t know the language of flowers,” I said,
disappointed, after reading the note.
“Actually we have Anna for this,” Amanda suggested.
“I don’t think we should bother her so much. Besides,
she is too busy now with the preparations for our party. By the way, we both
need cocktail dresses; the theme of the parties is the casino.”
“Really? Then we definitely need shopping tomorrow! As
for the bouquet, the message can be deciphered with the help of the handbook. I
signed up for an additional course of Embry, so they gave me this book in the
library,” pulling the right one out of a pile of books, said Amanda. “Okay,
let's see what we have here. Purple hyacinth means
“please, forgive me”
,
camellia means
“admiration”
and the peach blossom –
“I am your
prisoner”
,” smiling broadly, she summed up. “It looks like someone managed
to finally
melt my brother’s icy heart,” she added, looking at me
meaningfully.
As much as I did want to deny her words, I knew that the
red blush on my cheeks, had said it all for me long ago, so I asked her
about something else.
“How do you know so much about flowers? I’ve never seen
any of them before.”
“You seem to have forgotten whose daughter I am,” Amanda
said. “In our interior garden you would find all of the above.”
“Yeah, I still can’t get used to the idea that there are
so many geniuses around me,” I said, joking.
“Well, if you can’t get used only to this idea, the
progress is obvious, sweetie. I thought that you were more worried about your
own being unique. By the way, about the meeting... I think, you should go.”
“Who said you could read someone else’s notes?” I said,
blushing even more.
“Who is talking about
someone else’s
? The
note
is from
my
brother to
my
best friend,” Amanda said innocently.
“You don’t think it’s a date, do you?”
“You don’t need to be a genius, Eileen, to guess,” she
chuckled, hiding behind the bathroom door.
The rest of the day I spent in futile attempts to find
the answers to some questions. Was it possible, to become attached to a man,
knowing him only for… how long?
One and a half days
? The fact that there
was some connection between Christian and me was obvious. That in itself scared
me even more than the question of how strong the connection could be. Just
thinking about him made me feel nervous, in a good way, of course, not to
mention his touch that spread fire all over my body. But the weirdest thing was
our constant awareness of each other’s feelings.
The clocks already showed half past seven. Did I really
want to go to the meeting with Christian? Of course! What a stupid question!
Despite my attempts to suppress some feelings towards him, I couldn’t resist
that invisible force of gravity that was between us. Forgetting about every, or
at least some of my doubts, I primped and went to the western gate. While my
thoughts were connected to Christian, I felt my own excitement. Or maybe it was
his
excitement? I couldn’t understand.
Chapter 11. The
lake (
Christian)
I had
already been waiting for Eileen at the
gate for an hour. No, she wasn’t late. I couldn’t stop pacing my own room, and
went straight to the appointed place, not even knowing whether she would come.
I could only rely on my feelings. They told me that the excitement I felt at
that moment increased with each passing minute, as if my own emotions were
mixed with someone else's.
A few minutes later I felt some familiar trepidation.
She was there. Turning around, I saw Eileen just a few steps away from me. She
smiled enigmatically and incredibly attractively. She was wearing a light white
dress, and a cascade of her golden hair fell over one shoulder. At that moment,
I thought she was a vision, an angel. Despite the fact that it could sound too
trivial, I couldn’t find other words to describe her beauty and my own
feelings.
“I knew you would come,” smiling I said.
“You must be a very confident young man, Mr. Fairey,” raising
one eyebrow in amusement, she replied.
“Not at all. I just could feel you,” I grinned, taking a
few steps towards her.
“To be honest, I don’t really like it. Every girl should
have her secrets, and I’m like an open book for you,” she said disappointed.
I took her face in my hands and looked into the depth of
her beautiful eyes.
“Actually, you are the biggest mystery of this world.
And, believe me, I would have given up a lot, just to know more about you,” I
said, seeing that my words caused a charming blush on her cheeks. Frankly, I
liked that effect very much. I didn’t know what was going on with me, but every
time I saw her or touched her, the only thing I could think about was sweeping
her my arms and kissing those inviting lips of hers. I was dying to taste them
and feel their touch on mine.
“So why did you choose such an unusual place for the
meeting?“ she said, changing the subject and took a step away from me. I
immediately felt lonely without her.
“There’s one place I’d like to show you. It's not far
away from here.” I took a deep breath and tried to focus on the cause of this
meeting.
“Don’t we need permission to go there?” she asked,
walking beside me. Her proximity made me feel confident and incredibly
powerful, as if she was the source of my life energy.
“No, we are not going beyond the campus territory. These
gates lead to the University Park. It stretches for miles along the border.
This is sort of another security measure to prevent the outsiders from finding
us so easily. You have already noticed the crystal shape of Dever, right? But
in reality it’s a combination of thin layers of sand, wind and water. These
nature elements are protecting our territory. So ordinary people simply can’t
find us.”
“Are you saying that during the existence of Dever, this
place has never been found before?”
“Never. The thing is that Dever was built on the lake.
And its crystal shape is transparent, it can be easily hidden under the water
surface. No one can see it there, so when the humans come to the borders they
see nothing but an endless dark lake between the mountains.
“I can’t believe that! This massive construction can
just disappear under the water!”
“Well, it doesn’t happen every day, of course. Only if
there is a real danger or the risk of being disclosed. I’ve never witnessed it
myself, but those who have, say that they have never seen anything as magical
and breathtaking. It feels like swimming in the ocean in some huge glass
globe.”
“That’s incredible! So many security measures! Not
surprisingly, students may not leave the campus unless accompanied by
teachers.”
“Actually, not just teachers. Only first and second year
students need the escort. It is believed that other students already know how
to protect themselves if necessary. So for example, I can accompany you if you
want to leave the campus.”
“Really? Amanda and I wanted to go to town tomorrow,
so... you could go with us,” suddenly said Eileen.
“In this case, you need another attendant. As a student,
I can take responsibility only for one beginner.”
“So, it means we must find someone else.”
“Why do you need to go to the town tomorrow?”
“Our friend is throwing a party this Friday, and we
naturally need to go shopping.”
“Casino, tuxedos and all the staff?”
“How do you know about that?”
“Well, if you don’t mind Miss Eileen, I'll be one of the
gentlemen in a tux,” I said, winking at her. “Anna has already invited me.”
“I don’t even want to think how many people will be
there,” said Eileen, shivering. I realized that the tingling on her arms was
caused not by the thought of the party. She was scared...