TheFallenStarBookSeries1 (14 page)

I turned back to Alex. “I’m so sorry. She’s been kind of crazy lately.”

He laughed softly. “Yeah...I bet.” He got to his feet and grabbed his jacket off the back of the chair. “Well, I should probably go.  I’ll see you in class tomorrow, okay?”

I nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

He put his jacket on and started for the door, but stopped in the doorway and turned around. It looked like he wanted to say something, but he couldn’t find the words. Finally, he just waved and walked out.

For a minute, I just sat there, feeling torn. Part of me felt relieved that he’d left because, if he’d stayed, I might have broken down and told him things I didn’t want him to know. I almost had until Sophia had walked in. The other part of me, though, wished he’d stayed; felt sad that he’d left.

I let out a sigh. When did life become so complicated?

I got up, shut my music off, and headed downstairs for “dinner.” Like I said, we never ate dinner together, and it was weird to picture the three of us sitting around the table like a normal family. In fact, I couldn’t even picture it. It was that strange. But whatever. I guess I was about to find out firsthand was it was like to be part of a family.

Halfway down the stairs, I thought I heard voices coming from the foyer. I didn’t think much of it at first, until I realized who the voices belonged to. Sophia and Alex. Great. She’d probably cornered him and was saying God knows what.

This was so freaking embarrassing.

I sped up down the stairs—I needed to end this quick. But just before I reached the bottom, I heard something that made me slow down.

“You know the rules, Alex.” Sophia’s tone was razor-sharp. “So you should know better than to be getting close to her.”

I stopped dead in my tracks.
Rules?
What was going on here?

“Yeah, I know the rules.” The sharpness of Alex’s tone matched Sophia’s. “But need I remind you that Stephan sent me here to get some answers from her. And in order to do that, I need to get close to her.”

Stephan. There was that name again. The same one I’d heard him mention during my eavesdropping session in the library.

“That’s not what you’re doing,” she snapped. “You’re crossing a line Alex. A very, very, thin, dangerous line.”

“I think you’re forgetting that I don’t take my orders from you.” Alex’s lowered his voice, and I had to lean forward on my tiptoes in order to make out what he said. “I’ll do what I need to do in order to get her to—”

I lost my balance and, being the graceful queen that I was, stumbled forward, banging my elbow into the wall, hard. “Ah!” I cried out, and then threw my hand over my mouth
.
Crap
.

A few moments of silence ticked by. Had they heard me? Of course they’d heard me. They weren’t deaf.

“Gemma,” Sophia called out.

Crap. Now what?

Rubbing my elbow, I slowly made my way down the rest of the stairs, my legs feeling like two flimsy wet noodles beneath my weight.

Sophia was waiting for me at the bottom, hands on her hips, her eyes a fiery bright gold. “What in the world are you doing?” she asked.

I pressed my lips together and looked over at Alex. He was casually leaning against the front door, his arms folded across his chest. He met my gaze, appearing not the slightest bit concerned. But with what I’d just heard them talking about, it seemed like he should be.

I turned my attention back to Sophia. Every once in a while, when she got really, really mad, this faint bluish-purple vein would pop out on her forehead. Right now, I could see it bulging underneath her pale skin.

“I came down to get something to eat like you told me to,” I told her, still staring at the vein. It reminded me of a gross, bluish-purple worm.

“Gemma, what on earth are you looking at!” Sophia barked.

I flinched and shook my head. “What’s going on here between you two?” I asked her. “And why were you guys talking about me like that?”

She gave me a patronizing look. “Like what, Gemma?”

“Like, you know.” I waved my hand in the air, trying to come up with a word to sum up what I’d just heard. Problem was I wasn’t sure what I’d just hear.

Alex shifted his weight away from the door and raised his eyebrows questioningly at me.

What were they trying to do here? Make me look like a crazy idiot? Because they were doing a pretty good job of it.

“Look, I don’t know what you think you heard,” Sophia said, her tone tolerant. “But we weren’t talking about you. I know Alex’s father, and I was just telling him to pass along a message for me.”

My anger simmered. She was such a liar. “That’s such bull. You were talking about me. I heard you.”

She waved her finger at me furiously. “You better watch your tone young lady. I mean it.” I opened my mouth to say a few choice words that I think, under the circumstances, would have been totally appropriate, but she cut me off before I could even get the first one out. “Now, I don’t know why on earth you think you have the right to listen in on other people’s conversation, but you need to stop. Do you understand me?”

I eyed her over suspiciously. Was there a hidden meaning to her words? Did she know what happened at the library? But if she did, who told her?

I think I had a guess.

Without another word, I pushed by her, heading for the kitchen. Before I disappeared through the doorway, I glanced back at Alex.

Now he looked worried.

The next morning, I woke up with red, swollen eyes.

I hadn’t wanted to cry last night, but I’d ended up doing it anyway.

I’d cried myself to sleep.

Now I could barely open my eyes.

I glanced at the clock and saw a blurry 12:10. 12:10 in the afternoon? What the heck? Why hadn’t my alarm gone off?

I sat up and stretched out my arms. Well, so much for school.

But why had Sophia let me sleep in?  Yeah, I know last night had been super intense. Still, letting me skip out on school…She never let me miss school.

I climbed out of bed, put on a black long sleeve shirt and a pair of worn-out jeans, and pulled my hair into a messy ponytail. Then I went downstairs. It was quiet. Too quiet for anyone to be home.

So, I was alone.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

Just to make sure, I searched the living room and the kitchen. Both were empty. And Sophia and Marco’s car wasn’t in the driveway. Yep, they were definitely gone. How convenient for them. Maybe that’s why no one had gotten me up for school. Perhaps they were trying to avoid me so they wouldn’t have to answer questions about last night.

Outside, the sky was grayed over by clouds. Not a single speck of sunlight trickled through, making everything dark and gloomy. Between the darkness and the emptiness of the house, I felt unsettled.

I flipped on the light and made myself a turkey sandwich. I decided to eat in my room because locking myself in there seemed better than sitting out in the open, where anything from the yellow-eyed monsters to Sophia and/or Alex could walk in at any moment and take me by surprise.

Sprawled out on my bed, with my music cranked, I tried to analyze what could be going on between Sophia and Alex. What had last night meant? They’d said so many strange things. Things I was convinced had to do with me. But how was I supposed to find out for sure?

Suddenly, out of nowhere, I had an epiphany. The house was empty and I needed answers. And what better way to find out answers then to snoop around a little. Yes, I know, snooping is very wrong, blah, blah, blah, but so is eavesdropping, which is something I’ve done on more than one occasion. Besides, if it wouldn’t have been for my bad habit of listening in on other peoples’ conversations, I wouldn’t have found out that Alex could feel the electricity too. And that he thought I was the one that was causing it. Plus, I’d found out all that other stuff. (I say other stuff because I have no idea what that “stuff” is exactly).

Besides, I’m not a firm believer in the whole ignorance is bliss motto. I needed to know, even if it turned out to be something bad.

Without any further indecisiveness, I hopped off my bed and went into Marco and Sophia’s room. I’d only been in their room a couple of times—and never by myself. But every time, I’d felt uncomfortable. But being in here now, all alone, was way worse. The place was really creeping me out. It felt like I’d stepped into a cemetery in the late hours of the night, instead of into my grandparents’ room midday.

Although the creepy factor might have been coming from Sophia’s perfectionist touch. Every single thing in the room was perfectly in place. And almost everything matched. The white four post bed matched the armoire and the nightstand. The pink bedspread coordinated flawlessly with the roses on the wallpaper. The bed skirt and the curtains were made of the same frilly lace. There was no clutter anywhere. The whole room was probably about as sterile as a hospital, which had me a bit worried. If I touched something, would she be able to tell? Maybe. I guess I’d just have to be careful.

Very, very careful.

I decided to check the closet first because…well, I’m not sure why other than it seemed like just as good a spot to start with as any.

Moments later, I ran into a problem. I realized I had no clue what exactly it was I was looking for. Still, I didn’t want to just give up. So I continued to search through the massive amounts of clothes hanging up in the closet, and through the shoe boxes that were stacked on the closet floor, hoping that I’d know what “it” was when I found it.

But when I’d finished looking through everything, I came up empty-handed.

Whatever I was looking for wasn’t in the closet.

I moved on to the armoire, then the night stand. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, though. I even checked under the bed, despite the fact that I knew I wouldn’t find anything under it.

Neat freaks never put things under their bed.

I let out a frustrated sigh. I should’ve known this would be a waste of time. I mean what had I expected to find? A secret letter explaining what was going on. Yeah, right. Like that would ever happen.

Nothing is ever that easy.

Giving up, I headed to leave.  But I slowed to a stop when I spotted a wood bench, lined with throw pillows. There was a small latch on the front of it. As good of a place as any to hide something, right?

I carefully removed the pillows from the bench, and then held my breath as I unlatched the lock. I half expected an alarm to go off or something, but the only sound it made was from the hinges squeaking when I lifted open the lid.

Inside were books, old photos of Sophia and Marco in various places, a box of pressed flowers, some ribbons and cards. Nothing unusual, or at least that’s what I thought until I picked up the final object—a glass swan with a bright orange beak—and noticed the floor of the bench rocked slightly. Setting the swan aside, I used the palm of my hand to put pressure on the board. It popped up on one side, and....Ta-da! A secret compartment. Whatever I was looking for had to be in there. It just had to be.

I removed the board the rest of the way and found a single manila envelope hiding beneath it. My hands started to sweat as I picked up the envelope. This was it. This was what would give me my answers.