The Divide (The Divide Series Book 1) (9 page)

After my body had turned bright pink, I dragged myself out of the shower and into clothes. Setting my hair up into a high, messy bun, I made my way downstairs; it took me a couple of sets to get used to the pain, but I tried ignoring it as best I could. 

As I reached the bottom of the stairs, I could smell bread baking in the kitchen. Following my nose, I walked toward the kitchen, ignoring the empty space where the table used to be but was now broken. Charlie's voice bounced through the air as he yelled at the staff on the other side of the door. Quietly, I slipped through the door and stopped in my tracks and stared in stunned silence at the kitchen table. It was layered with food, all different types of fruits: ranging from strawberries to tomatoes, every type of bread you could think of, and tender meats ranging from pork to turkey. I could only stare at the masterpiece. Maybe I had died and gone to heaven. There had never been that much food before; I’d never eaten so many different foods. The staff was busy running around, carrying plates to different rooms and then grabbing other glassware.

“Mia,” Agathy said.

I looked over at her. She was standing by the closed basement door. “Hey.”

She looked me up and down, frowning. “Let’s get you changed.”

I looked down at my clothes. I was wearing black yoga pants and a white tank top. It was Sunday; I always dressed like this on Sundays. “Why?”

Agathy hurried past me, gently grabbing my arm on her way, and led me back upstairs, leaving my stomach growling downstairs. When we got to the room, Agathy shut the door and locked it. She rushed past me and into the closet while I stayed in my spot, staring quizzically at her back. She grabbed a black duffel bag and threw it on the bed, followed by a couple pairs of my black pants, black t-shirts, black socks, and (thankfully, something other than black) underwear and bras. She rushed out of the closet, holding on to my black boots, and set them next to the duffel bag on the bed. Why she would put dirty shoes on the bed, I didn’t know. Why she was throwing every black thing I owned into the duffel bag, I didn’t know. Maybe she’d lost her marbles? She went back into the closet; I could hear hangers swinging into each other.

“Umm, Agathy?” I asked. I didn’t move from my spot, just in case I had to run out of there.

“Yes, my dear?” she said. Walking out of the closet, she had another duffel bag and backpack along with my black wool coat and more clothes.

“What are you doing?” Was I being kicked out? Was she kidnapping me? Was it a bad thing that I hoped she was kidnapping me?

“Don’t worry about me, dear.” She threw clothes at me, I ducked, and the clothes littered to the floor. “Just change into those clothes. I should have everything finished soon.”

“I don’t understand,” I said looking at the clothes she’d thrown at me. A pair of black pants, and a long-sleeved, silky black shirt. 

“Just go change,” she said. “I’ll explain everything when the time is right.” With that, she went back into my closet and began rummaging around in there. I looked back at the clothes and sighed. Picking up the pieces—wincing as I bent over—I made my way to the bathroom to get dressed.

Agathy worked fast. I mean really fast. I was only in the bathroom for a few minutes, and when I came out, both duffel bags were full and sealed up, the same with the backpack. She rushed past me into the bathroom and shut the door behind her. I kept my gaze on the closed bathroom door. What the hell was she doing? When the door opened, Agathy stepped out with another bag, and I could see my bathroom supplies in it. She went over and slipped it into one of the duffel bags.

“Am I going on a trip?” That I didn’t know about?

Agathy just ignored me and went for my purse. Dumping everything out of the bag: my wallet, a book, and a bunch of candy wrappers, she replaced it with only my wallet and book. As she opened up my nightstand, she took out a few books and slipped them in along with my wallet. With my purse in her hand, she rushed into my closet; I just stared stupidly at the wrappers on the bed. My stomach growled angrily. Agathy came back out and set my purse down next to the bags. When she finally looked at me, she had a kind smile formed on her lips, but her eyes were calculating.

“What’s going on?” I asked. I didn’t know how I was supposed to react to her bizarre behavior.

“I need you to do me a favor,” she said. “You need to go to the school and get your hidden box.”

My jaw dropped. “But the school is closed.” And possibly locked.

She nodded her head and walked over to me, handing me a key. “This will unlock the back entrance to the school. Go and get the box and come straight back.”

I didn’t understand why she was acting this way. “Why? What’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you as soon as you get back, I promise. But right now you need to go and get it. We need to be prepared before nightfall.”

“What’s happening at nightfall?”

“Just go. Use the back door to sneak out. I will make sure no one knows you’re gone. But hurry, and do not stop for anything or anyone. Here.” She handed me my wool jacket, gloves, and a hat. “Wear these. It’s cold out. But like I said, do not stop for anyone. Go straight there and come straight back.”

I hesitantly slipped my jacket on, Agathy helping—and by helping I mean shoving it onto my arms—along with the hat and gloves. She all but threw me out of the bedroom, and I had to run down the stairs to keep up with her. As she opened up the back door, cold wind blasting in our faces, she shoved me out before shutting the door behind me. Debating whether I should just go back into the house and ignore her request (or was it a demand?) or do what she told me to do, I sighed and walked toward the alleyway. I opened up the metal door and shut it behind me, looking at the house for a long minute. With my hands in my pocket and my eyes on the ground, I walked down the alley. 

It took me an extra five minutes then it usually would for me to get to school. I decided to stick to the alley, going out of my way to stay hidden; I kept my head down the entire time, that way if someone noticed me they wouldn’t exactly be sure it was me. When I arrived at the school, I ducked and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. It wasn’t until I was safely in the school that I brought my head up. It took me ten insufferable minutes to get the damn locker to open, and when it finally did, I wanted to cry out in relief. I moved everything out of the bottom shelf and slid my hand all the way to the back until I felt the small box. I jammed the wooden box into my coat pocket and shut my locker door. As I turned to leave, I slammed into a wall of chest and bounced back. Hands gripped my upper arms to keep me from falling backward. I looked up and my eyes collided with his green ones.

“What are you doing here?” I whispered. I looked around and let out a sigh of relief. No one else seemed to be lurking with us. As I looked back up at him, I recoiled. His eyes burned with anger and he clenched his teeth.

“What the hell happened to your face?” I could feel his anger vibrate off his body, and it seemed to soak into mine, causing me to get angry. It wasn’t until I tried to narrow my eyes at him that I winced. I forgot my face looked like I’d just come from batting practice.

“I fell?” It came out more like a question than an answer.

“Are you asking me or yourself that question?” he said.

I rolled my eyes at him (which hurt) and pulled out of his grip. “What are you doing here?”

“Don’t change the subject,” he said. He closed his hands into fists.

“You don’t change the subject. I asked you first.” Very mature, I know. 

“I watched you sneak in here and wanted to see what you were up to,” he said. I looked at him in surprise. I really didn’t think he was going to tell me. “Now, tell me what happened to your face.”

“Umm, yeah, no,” I said, walking past him. It would completely humiliate me to tell him my father did it. Good thing he couldn’t see under my shirt.

Gregory walked up next to me, grabbing my arm to stop me. “You did not look like that when I left you. Was it that guy you were with last night? Did he do something to you after I left?”

Guy? What guy? “Wha—” Oh, Tyler. “Listen, you don’t have to worry about my now colorful face. I’m fine.” It looked like Gregory wanted to snap my body in two. It would suck, but if he used his hands, I wouldn’t be too upset about it. He had nice hands. I looked at them, and I could feel a burn crawling up my face. “Well, I have to go,” I said. His hands. I really had to think about his hands? He doesn’t like me. He told me point blank last night that no one wanted to be my friend. Why would I care what his hands were like? I shook my head. 

“Where?” he asked. I didn’t look up. I could still feel the burn on my face, and I knew my face was playing “match the color” with a strawberry.

“Home.” I looked down at my shoes. When did I put shoes on? I remembered putting the coat and hat on, but the shoes?

“Hey,” he said. He grabbed a hold of my arm and stopped me. He tipped my chin up with his finger until our eyes connected. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t remember putting shoes on,” I blurted out, and I instantly wanted to punch myself in the face.

He raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Nothing,” I said. “Listen, I have to go home. I need to get back before anyone notices I’m gone.”

Confusion lit up his feature. “Why?”

“Umm.”
Should I say something or just stay quiet?
“I’m not really sure. Agathy told me to get something from the locker and then come straight back home. She wouldn’t tell me why.” I rushed out.

“Who’s Agathy?”

“My maid,” I said. “She’s kind of acting bizarre.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, she seems panicked. It’s hard to explain. And—” I stopped. I couldn’t tell him what I thought she was doing. I knew I shouldn’t be telling him anything. He might have saved my life last night, but he was still the world’s biggest ass.

“And?” he prompted. 

“And nothing. Listen, I have to get back.” I walked outside and waited until Gregory was out before I locked up the school.

I looked up at Gregory. His head was tilted up, looking at the gray snow clouds in the sky. “Welp, I better be going,” I said after a few minutes of watching him watch the sky.

Gregory looked at me, and I shivered at the intensity of his stare. “I want to know who did that to your face.”

I smiled. “Don’t worry about it. You do you, and I’ll do me.” He frowned at me, but I ignored it and continued toward my house.

“Princess.” My spine tightened at that name. “About last night.”

I turned around to face him and waved him off. “Listen, don’t worry about it. It has all been forgotten. Why don’t you go on home to your friends, and I’ll go… Oh, shoot, I don’t have any friends, so maybe I’ll just hang out by myself.”

“You’re acting like a child,” he said through clenched teeth.

As I shrugged my shoulders, he glared but I ignored it as I turned around and raced home. My heart hurt every time I thought of the
You don’t have friends because no one wants to be friends with you
line. My face hurt, my body ached, and a headache was starting at my temples. I needed to go back to bed. Well, maybe food first. And then bed.

As I gripped the door handle of the back door, I turned it as quietly and slowly as I could. I didn’t know how Agathy was going to cover for me, but the least I could do was come back stealthily. Warm air pushed against my face as I crept inside the house, and I quietly shut and locked the door behind me. No one was around. I wanted to run up the stairs, but I knew it would be better if I went up as quietly as possible, so I took one step at a time. My heart pounded in my ears, beating faster than my legs could run. I cringed when each step I took created a loud squeak in the stairs; I didn’t think I’d ever heard the stairs creak before. I looked down at the steps and glared, and then looked up; I had five steps to go. Chewing on my lip, I contemplated my plan: running the last bit of the stairs would probably make too much noise but might just be for the best. I took a deep breath and ran, and didn't let it out until I was safely in my room with my door shut firmly behind me. My bed was empty: the duffel bags, my purse, and my boots were gone.
Hmm
. Either Agathy needed me out of the house so she could steal my stuff, or I imagined the entire scene this morning and was now going completely nuts. 

“Mia.” I jumped and stifled a scream as Agathy came out of my bathroom. I was pretty sure if she were any sneakier, I might have had to change my pants.

“You scared me,” I accused, my hand planted on my chest. My heart thumped hard against it.

Agathy gave me a small smile. “Did you get it?”

I pulled out the box and handed it over to her. I watched as she took the roll of money out of the box and went over to the side of my bed. She bent down, and when she stood back up, she was holding my purse. As she opened it, she pulled my wallet out and slid the money into it; she placed the wallet back and closed the purse, setting it on the bed. “Good, good.”

I peered at her. “I still don’t understand what’s going on.” Placing my hands on my hips, I tried to stare her down; I wanted answers.