“Please, don’t go. I’m so sorry. I really don’t know what came over me,”
she pleaded.
There was no way in the world I could scowl at her. Her apology weakened
the ire in me. My clenched fists where released. However, the little ego
I had left wouldn’t let me stay.
“I’m sorry as well, but I have to go. You need your space. Also, I haven’t seen Stacey in a while now and I don’t want her to think of her
cousin as a heartless guy.”
Lisa gave up and moved away from the threshold. The tears in her hazel
colored eyes rolled down her pink cheeks, and her lips trembled. I
had no intention of causing her such pain. How could I even cause her such pain? I didn’t say any distasteful words.
“Please, don’t cry. I just want to check on her. I’ll be back in
a sec,” I assured her, placing my hands on her soft, wet cheek. “What did
you think I meant?”
“I thought you meant forever.” Her lips hardly moved. She seemed
ashamed to speak.
“Even without the agreement between your dad and I, that would
never happen. You mean more to me than you think,” I slowly explained.
Erratically, she smiled. “If you say so,” she said.
"I do."
There was a side of me that wanted to stay and use her
current mental state to get anything I wanted from her – physically
–
but I wasn’t brought up to treat women in such a manner, least of all the
girl I unconditionally loved.
When I got home, Stacey’s eyes were glued to the TV as she lay on the couch, waving her
legs in the air. Only television could make her feel so relaxed.
“Hey, how are you doing?” I asked, standing in front of the flat screen.
For a moment there, I was thinking she would unknowingly imitate Lisa,
but she got up and placed her arms around me. Her excitement startled
me.
Was I away for that long
? I thought silently.
“I’m fine, and you?” She released me from our embrace.
“I’m very good, thanks.” I joined her. “How’s the house
been? Hope you haven’t broken anything?”
Stacey placed her soft caramel legs across my lap. “Everything’s
just the way you left it – and by the way, Susan asked about you. She said you
haven’t been answering her calls or sending any messages.”
“Oh, I’ve rarely use my phone nowadays,” I said, pretending
to hear her information first, after I'd read her mind. "Give me a minute."
I withdrew my phone from my pocket and called Susan, extending my apology and updating her on my welfare. She seemed pleased to hear from me. Was I giving Lisa all my attention?
“Got to go now,” I said as I finished my conversation with Susan.
“Julie came over to see you,” Stacey announced.
I was hoping that wouldn’t come out. I was in a very happy mood and
hearing about Julie wasn’t a good idea at that moment.
“Why?” I placed my phone back
into my pocket, but my eyes were still fixed on Stacey.
“Must she have a reason?” she questioned, making me release a disgusted
grunt. “Anyways, she came to invite you for her New Year eve’s
party; I dropped the invitation on your ta-”
Before she could complete her sentence, I dashed to my room and
came back with the invitations. She looked surprised to see me move
so fast. I couldn’t blame her because I was hardly at home, so she never got to see
me use my abilities.
“Why are there two invitations?” I curiously asked.
She got up, walked up to me and collected one of the invitations. “This one is for you and the second’s for a friend of yours.”
I was a bit confused. I
f Julie did like me, she would have only invited me. She was such a weird girl. “Thanks. I’ll think about it, but what about yours?” I inquired,
stretching my hand to retrieve the card she took.
“Without me there would be no party,” she hyped herself up.
“That’s cool. I’m in my room if you need me.”
Stacey was trying to figure out the person I would invite for the party,
but
strangely I felt comfortable with it. She could think whatever pleased her
as long as she didn’t say anything concerning Lisa and I.
My room looked exactly how I’d left it. The books I was reading were still on the bed, and my MacBook
was
seated on the table. I liked the fact Stacey respected my privacy; she
was still the angel I knew. It was only her baseless hatred toward Lisa that caused us to
drift apart.
I spent a few hours at home with Stacey; we played a game of Scrabble,
wrestled each other and chattered a bit. Playing with Stacey was so much
fun. I couldn’t get emotionally agitated. It was like being a kid, having no
obscured motives. However, I'd begun to miss being with Lisa. There was no one who could fill her place in my life.
“I'll be going soon though,” I said as I sat down in the living room.
She was about to question my departure, but then remembered our
agreement. “Oh, okay, take care,” she said
I went to my room and changed into something I could wear
for the party. I had no good reason why I wanted to attend a party hosted by Julie. It just felt like the right thing to do. Stacey was in the dining room when I finished changing. I reached for her soft cheeks and pressed my cold lips against them.
"Bye," I said.
"See you soon," she replied.
I arrived at Lisa's house and knocked on the front door. It took her a second to
open the door.
“You should have let yourself in,” she grumbled.
“Nah, I knocked because I want to formally
invite you to a party tonight,” I said.
She seemed excited, but paused and asked, “Where’s the party?”
“I was expecting that. Well, it’s at Julie’s,” I answered.
Lisa scowled. “So tell me, why I am going? It’s like entering into
the lion’s den.”
We both climbed the stairs; she was leading so she couldn’t
face me while climbing. Her fragrance was alluring, and the best part was that it was her
natural fragrance.
“For the same reason you went with me to dinner with the Fords,”
I explained as we got to her room.
“And what was that again?” she asked. Was she trying to be ignorant? Or
did she want my lips to utter the words? Her question seemed ambiguous
to me so I chose to ignore it.
In her room we both sat down on her bed, staring at each other for a while, my dark brown eyes reflecting
through her glittering hazel eyes. We were both thinking, but of what? No
one knew.
“What's on your mind?” I asked, breaking the silence.
“I'm
thinking of what would happen if Julie tries to harm me because of her
imperative desire to have you.”
I smiled. “First of all, she can’t hurt you. Second, she won’t, knowing
I wouldn’t even look at her if she does. Lastly, I won’t let anyone hurt you.” The fact was Lisa was invincible, thanks to her fiery ruby necklace. So why should she be scared of a harmless girl?
“What about you? What's on your mind?” she asked.
“I'm thinking about our abilities. Firstly, why us? And what are we supposed to do with them? It’s like a gun delivered to one’s house and he or she is neither a police officer nor federal agent. The
first thought that would come to the person’s mind is who am I meant to
kill, or who am I protecting myself from? I’m really confused, Lee. Where do we go from here?”
Her expression grew passionate; she must have considered that
thought. “Hey, no matter what happens, we’re in this together and we’ll
travel this strange journey together.”
It's now she says
we
, after she'd rebuked me the very first time I'd used that word,
I thought.
“Aw, so would you accompany me, please, pretty please?” I pretended to go down on my knees.
Lisa got up from the bed.
“All right, but considering this kind of party, one would have thought you’d go
with Sharon.”
“I thought so too.”
Her statement vexed me but I didn’t want to spoil things
between Lisa and I. What had happened earlier was enough for the day, even
though she was now the offender.
“What time are we leaving?” she inquired, entering her closet.
“I really don’t know; maybe around 9 or 10.” I got out the invitations, looked at them and continued, “It says here that it’s an all-night party. I
haven’t been to one before. My first year at college was very quiet; I
hardly went to parties, especially not an all-night party.”
She poked her head out of the closet. “Really? In that
case we leave by 11,” she said and then went back inside.
“That’s cool by me. Well, I’m already dressed. So take your time. Let me know when you’re ready.” I moved toward the door, but she shook her head, signifying I should close it.
“No, stay, I’ll get dressed
in my closet.”
"Okay."
I sat on her bed until she came out, wearing
an amazing gown. It looked a bit informal. Still, Lisa looked breathtakingly beautiful. It would be an honor for
any guy to accompany her, let alone party with her. I considered myself l
consid
ucky.
As usual, we took her car and she sat in the driver's seat – again. Even though she
didn’t know the route to Julie’s house, she insisted she was the one to
hold the steering wheel. We arrived at Julie's house, and Lisa glanced at her watch. It was a minute past eleven. There were s
ecurity men stationed at the gate,
which got me wondering if the queen of England was visiting. Lisa and I were
allowed inside the estate after showing our invitations to the security man.