Aftermath (17 page)

I looked around and
upon seeing we were in downtown, I started guessing again. “Are we
going to get beignets?”

“Nope.”

“Are we going to my
bench?”

“No. Geez, Ana. You
don’t like surprises, do you?”

“I’ve just have had
enough surprises in my seventeen years to last a lifetime.”

“Well, this is a good
surprise,” he emphasized.

We parked in front of a
meter around Jackson Square and I thought maybe Luke had lied about
the beignet idea. I was getting out of the car when Luke came around
to help me finish getting out.

“You don’t have to
do that, you know.”

“I know,” he said
simply. I noted he had never held the door open for me before which
reminded me of Hayden, who always had been the gentlemen. I frowned
at the thought. “But I want to,” Luke added, which made me frown
even further. He handed me the blanket, then grabbed the picnic
basket and my hand as he led me down Decatur Street. We passed the
artists in front of the cathedral, pausing to laugh at a few
caricatures.

“Samuel,” Luke
stopped at a carriage, nodding to a man who acknowledged him.
“Mi’Lady,” Luke joked as he held out his arm for me to enter
the carriage.

I laughed. “You’re
kidding right?”

“No, not at all.”

I shrugged, long past
the point of return, and grabbed his arm to lift me into the
horse-drawn carriage.

“You know you’re
not from the 1800s,” I spoke when Luke sat down next to me.

“I know. But
sometimes, all we have is our past.”

“Then I guess I
should say, ‘thank you mi’lord.’ Even though that’s a
different time period and location.” People really needed to start
brushing up on their history lessons.

“Whatever works.”
He winked at me and began to unfurl the blanket over me.

“Thank you.” There
was sadness to my voice as I realized the intimacy of said picnic.

Luke started pulling
out containers of food as the carriage pulled away, the sound of
hooves on concrete breaking our silence.

“So, what is this all
for?”

“You’re not very
trusting of people are you? Can’t you just believe that I love you
and want to do something nice for you?”

“No,” I said to all
of his questions.

“Well, I wanted to
bring you to the ball in a carriage. But since I’m not going to the
ball, I guess we’ll just do the carriage.”

“What? What do you
mean you’re not going to the ball?”

“Geez, don’t sound
too excited about it, Ana. Have some restraint.” He laughed sadly.
“But yes, to answer you, you didn’t want me to go to the dance,
so I won't.”

I impulsively wrapped
my arms around him. The feel of his thumbs caressing my back made me
peel away.

“It’s not that I
don’t want you to go. I am just scared. About what might happen.
You know that, right.”

“It’s fine. I don’t
care about a high school dance; I was just going for you, anyway.
There is one important little detail you forgot in why this could
never come true, though.”

“What’s that?”

“Why would your dad’s
friend be at our school’s dance?”

I looked thoughtful for
a moment. “Good point! Thank you so much. Thank you for all of
this.” I held my free hand out to show the carriage and picnic.

“It’s nothing,”
he shook his head, looking away. “I didn’t know what you liked so
I just brought a bunch of stuff. I hope it’s okay.” We regarded
each other in silence as we ate. I watched him quizzically as he ate,
knowing he was just doing it for show. I frowned at the thought. “So,
are you going to tell me what happened?”

I finished swallowing a
bite of my vegetarian muffaletta. “Tell you what?”

“C’mon, Ana. When
you were diving?”

“Oh.” Now I
remembered. “I actually had almost forgotten.”

“I’m sure,” he
smiled darkly.

“What about it?” I
asked, not understanding his concern or how he knew about it in the
first place.

“You think I would
leave you? I would never leave you, Ana. If I’m gone, it is to
protect you. But I am always watching you from afar.”

“Ok, stalker,” I
joked, but he wasn’t kidding.

“Hayden had left you.
His Hunts are more important to him than you. But I was there. I’ll
never leave you.”

“Where were you when
I almost drowned?” I bit my lip in anger at the mention of Hayden.
How could he say that when he knew the consequences? But I didn’t
ask that. Instead I only wanted to know why he hadn’t rescued me
like I'd hoped someone would.

“I was there, I
swear. I tried to get to you, I can’t explain it but when I did you
were already safe.”

“Do you know what
grabbed me?” I prepared myself for his answer.

“No. Not yet.”

I nodded. Nothing was
ever just black and white.

“What’s with that
guy you were with?”

“What?”

“Zack. I don’t like
him. You need to stay away from him.”

“Ex
cuse me
?”

“I swear, Ana. Hayden
is one thing. He can’t die, but Zack… I don’t think I could
control my anger around him.”

“You’re completely
insane, Luke! Stop the carriage.” I called to the driver and threw
the blanket off of me. “For one, Zack is a family friend. For two,
it’s not even like that. At all. For three—stop the carriage,
please!” I yelled again as we were not yet stopping.

“You can’t leave,
yet. Please, Ana, sit down.”

“Please let me off.”
I turned my attention back to Luke. “No, Luke. And for three, you
are not my boyfriend and have no say in who I can and cannot be
friends with.”

“Ana…”

“No, Luke. This was a
mistake. And thank you for making me realize that. Goodbye.”

The carriage hadn’t
stopped completely as I hopped off. What was I doing? I had never
been more indecisive in my life. I was so hot and cold. I was
completely turned upside down by Luke and the only way to stop it was
to avoid him for good. I didn’t know where I would get the
willpower to do so, but I knew if I kept this up, I would fail. Marie
said that love was infinite but it didn’t feel that way. It felt
the more I opened up to Luke, the more I was pulling away from
Hayden. Most of all, it felt wrong.

I knew what I had to
do. I had to avoid Luke until I could figure out was going on with my
emotions. The only good thing that came from this lunch was that I
now knew Luke wouldn’t be going to the dance. Now I just had to
garner the strength to avoid him for another day-and-a-half.

Luke caught up to me as
I made my way toward the cabs parked on St. Charles Ave. “Ana,
stop. Go back to my car, now.” He was trying to steer me by my
elbow in the opposite direction.

“No, thanks. I’ll
just take a taxi back to school.” I pulled my arm away as if he’d
burned me.

“That is ridiculous,
Ana, I will give you a ride.” His voice rose as he spoke until he
yelled the last part at me, causing a few nearby tourists to turn
their heads.

Luke was distracted by
the attention and I used that opportunity to jump in an awaiting cab.

“Just drive, I’m
going to Metairie,” my voice shook with haste as I spoke to the cab
driver.

Sure, I could have
saved twenty bucks and made Luke bring me back to school. But having
some time away from him and giving my willpower a break was worth the
expense.

I handed the cab
driver, who didn’t seem too happy about my destination, some cash
and told him to keep the change.

The parking lot was
full again with no students in sight, so I assumed lunch period was
over. I looked at the time on my phone and it was already over
fifteen minutes into my next class. Since I had my phone out anyway,
I dialed Hayden’s number. The wind blew a chill about the same time
I heard Hayden’s generic voicemail pick up. Where was he? I didn’t
think I ever remembered hearing Hayden’s voicemail before.
Suddenly, I felt very alone. It was the perfect moment to doubt
myself because everything was starting to take a turn for the worse,
it seemed. I thought I knew my friends but there was a part of
Marie’s life that was a mystery. I thought I knew Hayden but he
never shared anything about Hunting with me and now, when I needed
him most, he had disappeared. Most of all, I thought I knew myself
but apparently I couldn’t even trust that.

I walked back into
school, heading straight to my locker, thinking I really didn’t
have anything better to do and I certainly not wanting to go home and
mope.

I waited for Nikki
outside her class. And she took one look at my face and said, “Oh
no you don’t.”

“What?” I raised my
shoulders, just as surprised as I was confused.

“I know that look.”

“What look?” Was I
that transparent?

“It’s the look you
give when you are trying to get out of something. I’ve seen that
look right before you talked yourself out of going shopping with me
and I am telling you right now Adriana, I am not letting you get out
of doing this parade.”

My mouth dropped open a
little at how well she knew me. “What do you mean, doing this
parade? I thought we were just taking our usual post on Canal
Street?” There was definitely something she was not telling me…

“C’mon Ana, you
know all the students running for royalty get to go on Ecole’s
float in the parade. You have to sway your voters!”

“Nikki!” I
protested. I barely knew how I was going to make it watching the
parade, let alone participating in it with everything that was going
on.

She put a delicate fist
to her mouth and cleared her throat, “Let me rephrase that. All
students running for royalty are
required
to ride on the
float.”

“Nikki!” I nearly
screeched.

“What?” She threw
her hands up in the air. “You’re the one who wanted to run for
queen.”

I shot her a look.
“You’re kidding, right?”

“You didn’t seem to
protest when Stephanie got in your business. Maybe it’s because
someone
got all jealous about her hooking up with a certain
bad boy?”

“Who told you that?”
I groaned.

“Marie talks, girl.”

The hall quieted and I
knew the bell was about to ring. I sunk down right there in the hall
and buried my hands in my knees. Nikki quietly sat down with me but
didn’t say anything.

I lifted my head. “And
she didn’t hook up with him.”

“I know, honey,”
she patted me with pity. “How ‘bout this: after school, Marie and
I will come over to hang out and help you get prepared for the parade
and then we can all drive there together? “

I must have really
looked pathetic if she thought a makeover would cheer me up. But I
nodded anyway, knowing I had to move forward. She stood up and held
out her hand, offering to help me up. I took it and together we
walked toward our classes.

I grudgingly left Nikki
to go to my AP History class with Luke. When I walked in, classes had
already started but Rachel hadn’t started teaching. Everyone had
turned their attention to me when I walked in, probably thinking it
was supposed to be the teacher. Luke was in his usual spot, my empty
desk next to his was painfully in the spotlight. A blush flushed my
cheeks as I took the walk of shame to my desk. I succeeded in
avoiding his gaze while I sat down.

“Hey.” I pushed my
lips together as I heard the velvety aloofness of his voice. Did he
really think I didn’t mean what I had told him earlier? Was he
naïve or just hopeful? Even the prospect of finding out why Hayden
was not back yet was not enough to bring me to speak to him. After my
dream, his threat of killing Zack was just too real.

He sighed after I
didn’t reply. A small white paper bag was placed on my desk. “I
thought you’d be hungry since you didn’t finish our picnic.”

My stomach growled
treacherously and I opened the bag to find another sandwich and a
clear plastic container of fresh cut strawberries, pineapple, and
some other berries. I licked my lips out of instinct. He was right, I
was hungry and that vegetarian muffuletta was delicious. Suddenly, I
was not beneath eating what he had given me and I took out the
sandwich. I ate quietly while I went over my notes from yesterday’s
class. Rachel still had yet to show, and the students started talking
amongst themselves at the first chance they got.

“Is it good?”

Luke was still
irritatingly trying to get my attention. I rose my eyebrows in
indifference as I kept chewing, not taking my eyes off my notes.

“I’m sorry I got a
little jealous…”

Jealous? He was
downright possessive!

“I know I don’t
have a right to be, yet, but…”

My blood boiled when he
said the word
yet
and I crinkled my sandwich wrapper loudly
and stuffed it back in the bag. I licked the last of the olive salad
off of my lips.

I was surprised to hear
him let out a soft groan and from the corner of my eye I could see
him shaking his head. “I love the way you eat.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Where’s your
friend? She was supposed to start class eight minutes ago?”

“I know I was
wondering the same th—“ I stopped mid-sentence and turned back to
my notes. It was as if he knew just what to say to get me to talk to
him. And oh, how I did want to talk to him. Hayden still wasn’t
answering my calls or replying to the few texts I'd sent him. Nikki
said that I didn’t need to know where he was at all times and I
should just give him his space. But Nikki also didn’t know that he
Hunted rogue supernatural creatures or that I had almost been killed,
yesterday being roughly my third time. And Luke was there, like he
always was, open and straightforward with me about his motives. I
closed my eyes at the intruding thoughts. I didn’t like where this
was going and I resented the doubt that was building inside of me.