Dark Night (19 page)

“What are you talking about?” I snapped at
him. But he stayed silent to give me a minute -to think what he had
said -through. I felt like someone had just cut my tongue off, and
I had a knot on my throat. This was just messed up, he had played
with me. Now, he didn’t have a problem admitting it. Before I would
break down I had to ask him. “Even the kiss?” I barely was able to
ask. He nodded and turned away. It was humiliating, to say the
least.

I woke up sweating, remembering every single
detail of the “dream” I had. Knowing that I was just about to tell
Robert that I had feelings for him, I couldn’t deny, until he
interrupted me and basically saved me from embarrassing myself more
than I already had. I hated him for doing that to me, but what
could I expect from him. We barely knew each other, well before he
was Blake, now I knew that part of him but still, we always argued,
it made no sense. I was convinced though, that there was something
there, no matter what he said.

I went to my bathroom to take a shower,
definitely needing it. It was around dinner time, after getting
ready pretty fast I called Jack to tell him to come to my room.
What I was about to do, was the most selfish thing I had ever done.
But I was positive that Jack and I were not going to keep going out
while I was thinking about another guy, I refused to do that to
him. As soon as I heard the door bell, I felt so nervous I had to
take a few deep breaths before opening it.

“Hey.” Jack said, leaning in to kiss me, when
I dodged the kiss by giving him a hug. “What’s wrong?” He asked,
looking around. I didn’t know how I would do this, but I prayed
that he would forgive me.

“Jack. I don’t know if there is an easier way
to say this…” I looked down at my hands and then got some guts to
look up at him. But like he knew what was coming, he held a hand up
to stop me.

“I know what you’re going to say, it’s okay I
understand.” He said looking a little sad, though I could see the
understanding in his eyes, which made me feel one hundred times
better.

“You do?”

“Yeah, I mean we treat each other like best
friends but that’s about it. I like you, just don’t know how much
just yet. If we were meant to be together then maybe one day we’ll
be.” He said with a slight smile. He patted me on my head and
walked to the door. “Good luck.” He said before he closed the door
behind him.

I was relieved that Jack basically broke up
with me, not that I liked getting dumped but he did deserve better.
I sat down on the sofa and just when I was about to relax the door
to my room opened and Robert walked through. My heart literally
skipped a beat, then I had to recover I couldn’t show him how much
his prescience affected me, it would be terrible. Instead I got up
and grabbed my cell, went to the restroom and took a look in the
mirror before I took off. My hair was perfect, my outfit was too. I
walked out of the bathroom to find Robert standing by his bed
opening his bags. Apparently he was officially back. But I just
pretended he wasn’t there, and walked right by him, when he grabbed
me by my arm.

“What do you want?” I made myself sound
annoyed, when really I wanted to throw my arms around him, but that
was not going to happen.

He sighed, and let go of my arm. “Just wanted
to let you know that I’m back now,” He didn’t look at me, instead
he went back to unpacking.

“Well, that’s obvious. But thanks for making
sure I wasn’t blind.” I said as I slammed the door when I walked
out. I raced to Mereily’s room and knocked.

“Coming” Someone said from the other side.
Then the door opened and Sophie was standing there smiling her
dorky smile.

“Hey, Mia, want to come in? She asked opening
the door wider.

“I was just looking for Mereily. Have you
seen her?”

“No. last time I saw her was hours ago, she
was supposed to come back and get ready, we were going to go to
dinner together. I tried her phone but it’s off.” She shrugged.

“I bet she’s with her boyfriend then.” I said
thinking to myself.

“He just came by, he hadn’t seen her either.”
She shrugged.

“I saw her talking to an Elder, about an hour
ago.” Anna said approaching us.

“Oh, she did say she was going to work on her
homework.” Sophie realized tapping her head.

“In that case, we should go to dinner, she’ll
probably meet us there.” Anna said.

“Okey-Dokey” Sophie shut the door behind
her.

Anna cleared her throat. “So… I hear Robert’s
back.” I thought for a moment before answering, but it wasn’t a
question though I knew what she was implying.

“Yeah, he’s back.” Okay, so I was being
evasive but it was really something I didn’t want to discuss in
front of Sophie, not that I didn’t like the girl, it was just that
we weren’t great friends. The deal with Anna was that in a freakish
way I was like her and I felt like I could trust her.

“Hey, I’ll catch up with you guys later I’m
meeting… a friend.” Sophie blushed and took off. I wondered if she
had known what I was thinking.

We walked in silence for a few seconds before
I pulled Anna to the side of the hall that was by the dining room.“
What is it?” She asked curious.

“Okay, you caught me. I just didn’t want to
say anything in front of Sophie… but yeah I knew Robert had been
back...” I said looking at her grin and then I looked away.

“It’s all right. I knew there was something
between you two, for a while though I gotta say you hide it pretty
well. Nobody has noticed from what I can see… but I don’t know,
maybe you need to talk to Jack he’s___”

“I know, I already did,” I trailed off.
Watching some students I recognized from my classes pass by,
hopefully thinking they didn’t hear anything.

“How did he take it?” She asked uncrossing
her arms and searching for something.

“Actually, he kind of broke up with me. It
was.. Awkward.” I had to admit I felt better telling someone about
all that had happened in the last few hours. I went on talking to
her in whispers while we made our way inside the dining area where
we found Delilah sitting by herself waving a hand over to where she
was sitting.

“Hello!” She smiled genuinely. “What have you
guys been up to?”

We took our seats before answering. “You know
the usual.” Anna sighed.

“There has been some stuff going on, but
that’s not important right now. You look like you had a good day.”
I said changing the subject.

She didn’t notice. “I have actually. But
that’s not what I’m going to tell you. I got the 411 on the
newbie’s.” She said looking around the room to make sure no one was
listening in on our conversation, which no one was.

“What newbie’s?” Anna and I asked in
unison.

“You guys don’t even know?” Delilah asked
surprised, putting her fork down.

“Spill,” I said.

“Well, there are these new
students. They are transfers and I guess they were sent here from a
couple different schools. From what I hear it’s permanent and I
heard that Illyanne said and I quote “the king and queen sent them
ahead of time, but they will be arriving soon.” She tried faking
Illyanne’s old English accent, which she didn’t have to try very
hard since after all she had a hint of British accent herself, just
like Robert.
Robert..

“And?” Anna asked annoyed,
while she toyed with her now short hair that she had chopped off
this morning, because I had just realized that-I felt stupid. But
as soon as she noticed me staring she rolled her eyes, and waved
her hand as if to say: no big deal.

“And some of them are not allowed to come out
of their rooms until they say so, which is the weird part.” Delilah
whispered. “Seriously, this is like classified stuff. The only
reason I know is because Mereily was in Illyanne’s office and she
texted me after she overheard her talking to the secretary.”

“When was this?’ I asked while I was putting
some food in my mouth.

“About an hour ago or so…
why?”

“Nothing… is just that we’ve been trying to
get a hold of her, but her phone’s off or something.” I told her
covering my mouth while I chewed my food.

“Huh.” She shrugged.

“I have some things to take care of, guess
I’ll see you guys around.” Anna neatly stood up and left.

“What’s with her?” Delilah said wiping her
mouth very neatly.

“That’s Anna.” I shrugged.

“Did you know my brother’s back?” She eyed me
suspiciously, I wondered if she knew. I wondered if I had it
written all over my face that I liked Robert a lot, and that I
cared a lot when someone spoke about him. So, with Delilah being
his sister I decided that maybe I should tell her about her
brother. But right when I was about to confide in her, Robert
walked in… holding Genevieve’s hand and the whole room started
spinning.

“Are you alright?” Delilah asked leaning over
the table and putting her hand on my head. “You don’t have
fever.”

I blinked, and took a second look at Robert
and Genevieve, Delilah followed my gaze and then she knew what was
going on.

“Oh I’m sorry girl. I didn’t know they got
back together. When I talked to Rob earlier he seemed… different. I
didn’t expect for him to hook up with that tramp again, it’s
seriously wrong___”

“So you know?” I stared down at my plate,
suddenly feeling sick.

She touches my hand and squeezes, making me
feel warmer. “I think I’ve known since the day he became a Vampire,
it’s okay though I won’t say a word.” She stood up and came around
the table to pull me up. “Come on, we got some shop-ping-to-do.”
She sang.

I didn’t glance
back.

After coming back from a shop -a -thon with
Delilah. We headed straight to my room (luckily Robert wasn’t
here). But before we could get comfortable a loud knock on my door
made us both jump. While we exchanged a look of: What the hell? I
walked over to the door and opened it.

Sophie was standing there
with hands over her eyes, and when she put them down to look at me,
I could see that she had been crying for a while now, her whole
face was red, and she was still crying. “W-why didn’t you answer
your phone?” She asked desperate. We had turned our cell phones off
so no one would bother us.

“What happened?” Delilah demanded stepping
outside the hall where Sophie had leaned against the wall.

“I-It’s Mereily… she I-is…”
She couldn’t finish before she started bawling.

“What? What’s wrong with her?” I asked, my
mood changing.

“She’s at the infirmary. She’s very sick, and
I doubt that....” Robert was saying when he walked up to us. Our
gazes meet and then broke by Sophie’s sobs.

“I-is because she’s sick. It came back after
all, they had said she would be okay… but she’s not! She’s not
going to be okay anymore! All because she took the V2 too soon! It
was their entire fault!” Sophie whisper shouted.

And even though I’m taking in every word in
my mind is on Mereily, before someone else could say another word,
I sprint past them all leaving them to console Sophie, while I find
my friend. I ran as fast as I could (trust me I run pretty fast
now) towards the infirmary, which was located by the other offices
in the main lobby of the institute. Not by Illyanne’s, she had her
own reception area. When I finally got there, it was quiet. There
was a secretary leaning on her desk searching for something before
she spotted me and then she stood up and stiffened up. There were a
few other students in there but they were all talking amongst
themselves not paying attention to me.

“How can I help you?” The strange woman says.
She was tall and thick, she was a full vampire.

“What room is Mereily Jolie in?” I ask, not
interested in being formal.

“Room 4 but she’s not allowed to__” I walked
past her and through the narrow hall where there are only about ten
rooms and when I see that Mereily’s room has a Restricted sign on
the door I don’t even knock I just go in anyway.

I gasp as I walk in and shut
the door behind me slowly. Mereily is lying on a hospital bed with
all kinds of tubes going in her and when I look at her face she
almost looks… dead. Only she’s not because with my ultra-hearing I
can hear her heart beating from across the room. I step closer to
her, worried that I may wake her up, but hoping she would open her
eyes. As I look around I see how it all looks just like a hospital.
The white walls the machines the bed, everything, except for the V2
that they’re still giving her, through a tube and into her veins.
Before I could turn and bolt out the door and tell Illyanne off,
Mereily speaks.

“Please don’t leave me.” I could barely hear
her begging whispers, but when I do I go stand by her bed and look
at her, I mean really look at her. The eyes of my friend were not
even hers, she used to have the most beautiful blue eyes, now they
were almost white. Her face had gone so pale it hurt to look at her
skin. Her lips were purple and it was a scary look for a girl that
had always been so pretty and full of life.

Tears are streaming down my
face, as I try to wipe them away I say, “You’ll get better, and
when you do we’ll throw that damn slumber party we’ve been talking
about. Guess who’s going to be the guest of honor?”

She smiles in reply. But we
both know better, what Robert was going to say earlier was that he
didn’t think she was going to make it. And as much as I hated to
admit that he was right, he was. Mereily closed her eyes, and when
she does she whispers one last thing, “Tell Jordan that I love him,
but that he’ll need to move on… You guys are the best friends a
girl could have...” Mereily’s voice faded until she fell into a
deep sleep. That’s when I knew she was gone.