The Broken Curse (2 page)

Campus is bare, vacant. It has been since we came back here two months ago. I still remember the day that my dad forced me to come back, pretending along with all my friends that Demi God Academy was reopening.
 

The news I got that day rocked my life. But, I've used the information as fuel to heat my anger and step up my training. Fuel to solidify my decisions. Fuel to train as hard as I can so I can kill those who have hurt my friends and I.
 

As we pass the student center, I'm reminded of just how quiet this place is. The other students aren't back yet. Despite the air being unusually clear and light, it's still summer break, so they won't return until the end of August. Only a few teachers linger on campus and even fewer students. I just felt like I would do better in the dorms than at home.

Kara and Mikey decided to stay on campus, thinking that they could 'keep an eye on me'
.
Despite my attempts to convince them to go home and enjoy their summer, they stubbornly stayed. Junior is here with Kara more often than not, which makes me relieved, because they spend most of their time together and leave me alone. Mikey just didn't have a home to go back to.

We climb up to our shared dorm room and I can smell the food Kara's ordered already. The room is set up like the time we had a sleepover last semester. Megan's face forces its way to the forefront of my mind and sadness wraps me up in its constricting hands, strangling me to the point where it's difficult to breathe.
 

The old me would have let the grief and sadness take me over. I would have let the panic attack wrack my body and render me weak. But I don't do that anymore. I don't let myself fall victim to my own thoughts.

I'm better than letting my emotions tackle me. I'm empty, a broken shell, but I like it this way. I like not feeling a single thing; it makes my mission a whole lot easier.

I push all the grief down into the bottom of my gut and move towards the pizza, hungry from my long workout. Hunger feels a whole lot better than sadness, and I cure that way easier. I check my cellphone for the time and notice a notification from Ollie.

I'm coming tonight.

I smile, like I'm supposed to, but again it doesn't fill me with the butterflies it used to. I sort of miss getting giddy and full of love. I miss loving Ollie. But at the same time, my choice looms in the air—the grief, guilt and finality too much.

"What has you all smiley over there?" Kara asks as she grabs a slice of the pepperoni and jumps up on her bed. I notice a new picture above her head, taped to her pink wall. It's of Megan, Lisa, Kara, and me. It's framed with white polka dots. I quickly look away and focus on a feather from her white down pillow that fluffed up when she sat on it. The rectangle fan in the window blows the feathers around until they freeze on the ground.

"Ollie's going to come visit later."

"Oh," she coos, wiggling her perfectly shaped eyebrows. "Do you want me to leave for the night?" She grins at me, her sexual innuendo too much to handle. If only she knew that Ollie and I have only had sex that one time. In fact, I've only had sex that one time—period. And I don't plan on changing that anytime soon.

"No, that's okay. I'm feeling pretty tired, so we'll probably just watch a movie and go to bed." I hop up on my bed and lean against the wall. My heart is back to its regular, rhythmic beating, and I start to relax, my mind wandering.

"Why don't you go out or something?" she offers from across the room. She has on more makeup than normal, her eyes lined with black.
 

"Not in the mood." I shoot her an I-Don't-Want-To-Elaborate scowl. She frowns, but drops it, and I'm thankful for once that she stops talking. "So how are things with Junior?" I ask her, wanting the subject of our conversation far from me and onto her. I take another bite of my pepperoni slice and savor the grease.

"Oh my gosh. Things are freaking awesome. We went on a real date last night to some place in your town. I think it was called, Lynns, or Limes or—"

"Luke's Shake Shack?" I save her from trying to think too hard.

"Yes!" she yells, clapping her hands, laden with pizza grease. "It was so good. I drank like four chocolate shakes, but wow. Totally worth it. I think he loves me," she says, her eyes wide. She looks at me for confirmation, but to be honest, I don't know much about their relationship other than they make out a lot.
 

"That's really great, Kara. I hope that he does. He'd be stupid not to."

"So, you probably should know, we're having a party for you tonight," she says, her eyes refusing to meet mine.

"Why?" I ask back, my heart rate spiking just from the knowledge that I'm going to have to act like I'm happy all night long. I hate smiling for people when I really don't feel like it.

"Why don't you look at the calendar?" she asks through gritted teeth; I can see the confusion bloom on her face. Most people frown at me now, or glare, or just all-around hate me. I know Lisa does—I did kill her best friend. But the way Kara looks at me hurts me a little, as if she's really questioning how far gone I am.

I turn around and look at the wall calendar above my desk. I'm a month behind, so I pick up the page and see that it's June second—my birthday. There's a large cake drawn in the small box around the date. I inwardly groan and turn back to see Kara standing there with a sash in one hand and tiara in the other advancing in on me like a shark to blood.

"Seriously?" I groan as she positions the princess gear on me. I remain still, letting her have her moment of glory. She loves this, despite my clear annoyance. Kara gets one night out of me and then I'm going back to the training center. Let the hours of counting down begin…
 

"Ryder, it's your birthday. We have to celebrate!" Kara yells, clapping her hands when the tiara is secure over my long, brown hair. "Everyone is coming down for the party tonight. Since, like, nobody is on campus, we decked out the dorms. Get ready, because in a half-hour, we're partying."

A knock sounds at the door as I sit on the bed and chat with Kara while she prepares for the party. I walk to the window to turn up the fan because the humidity in the air hangs heavy; my hair feels like it's melting off my head. Instead of fixing the air conditioning, Kara just opts to wear fewer clothes. Despite working out like crazy lately, I still have no desire to prance around in the equivalent of a bikini.

It's funny, because I notice she's wearing the same pink and brown cowboy boots she wore on the day we first met. But instead of a dress, she's wearing tight pink jean shorts that show off her tanned and toned legs and the very lowest part of her butt cheeks.

She has on one of my tank tops, and it definitely looks better on her. She fills it out better, as I've started toning up and working out. I look down at myself and cringe at my outfit, but just don't care enough to change. Kara already forced me to shower and actually wash myself—her words. Then she made me change from my leggings into shorts, so that's enough effort. Plus, it's
my
birthday. People can't be mean to me or tell me what to do—although I guess Kara is doing just that by making me go to the party.

Another knock bangs on the door and since it's apparent that Kara isn't going to get it, I walk over from the window and swing the door open. Ollie is standing with Junior beside him, both posing and smiling. I lean up on my tiptoes and give Ollie a kiss on the lips.

He elongates the kiss and effortlessly lifts me into his arms. He walks us back a few steps, twirling us in playful circles, and I open my eyes, despite the fact that we're still kissing. I see Junior skip over to Kara and plant a wet one on her. I shut my eyes and try to focus back on Ollie's kiss.

Ollie finally puts me down and then pats my butt when I turn to go back to my bed to sit. Ollie has a bag in his hand, which he puts on my desk before he comes over to sit next to me. He's literally radiating happiness in thick waves that I just can't ignore. I perk up a little just from being in such close proximity to his positivity.

"So, what's the plan for your big one-eight?" Junior asks. He comes over after loving on Kara and gives me a one-armed hug. I return it and then shrug my shoulders since I really don't know what's the deal. This is Kara's thing, not mine.

"Wait until you see it, babe. The girls and I went crazy on the first floor. We decorated, and there's tons of food and drinks." Kara pauses to take a breath and then adds, "Ollie you brought the beer, right?"
 

"Yeah, it's in the bag." He nods towards my desk where the brown bag is.

"I'm almost ready," Kara says, leaning forward so her face is right against the mirror. She's putting on some bright red lipstick, taking her
getting ready
to a new level. She already was ready before she had to add more. "There." She caps her tube and places it back into her purple makeup bag before smacking her lips in the mirror.

Kara waves us over towards the door, and Junior and Ollie jump up almost simultaneously like trained dogs. I zone a bit, trying to prolong seeing a bunch of people I don't want to see, but they wait for me in the doorway, so I hurry behind them.

We get to the first floor; Kara was right, they went extra crazy. The lights are dimmed way down, but they've lined the ceiling with string lights in an array of colors. It's like the house from
Christmas with the Kranks
.

Groups of people hang out in the red and blue lit halls, leaning against the walls, chatting and drinking. Kara makes the first left but doesn't actually enter the room; instead she just looks inside, nods, and then moves on as if inspecting the rooms for perfection.

As I pass the door, I peek in. It's almost pitch black except for a strobe light in the middle of the room. It's like a lightning storm with all the flickering. I try to sharpen my vision to see who's in there and what's going on.
 

"Boo!" someone yells right into my face. I scream and jump back, about to punch whomever just scared me, when I see Mikey's grinning face emerge from the darkness. I glare at him and shove him backwards by the shoulder.

"What the heck is your problem?" I growl at him, my adrenaline trying to work its way down from its abrupt spike. I push him back a few feet, my strength overpowering his, but he bounces back fast with his electric energy.

"Lighten up, Ryder. Your party is sick." Mikey slings his arm around my shoulders and tugs me close. "Wait until you see the hook up room," Mikey whispers in my ear, and I glare up at him, knowing that he's just playing around..
 

Ollie must notice the interaction because he comes over to us, his eyes darkened and narrowed on Mikey. I roll my eyes, but don't have it in me to put up a fight.

"Hands off," Ollie snaps, physically removing Mikey's hand from my shoulder and replacing it with his own. I smile at Mikey, but let Ollie take the lead. It doesn't really make a difference to me, and I'm not in the mood to start an argument.

As we walk forward, I glance back at Mikey, who's already retreating into the strobe-lit room. I hear people clap as he enters. I feel bad that Ollie's so possessive, especially with Mikey, since nothing would ever happen between us.
 

I listen to Kara as she gives us the grand tour of the rooms she's using for the party floor. Hookup room, dance room, game room, blah, blah, blah.
 

When we get back to the front of the dorm, I notice that more and more people have come in. I don't even think some of them attend Demi God Academy. I'm sure that Kara sent out a Facebook message to everyone including a postscript that they should tell their friends, too. I would say I know about a handful of the people present. Though, I'm anti-social, so that may be my own fault.

Luckily, with the amount of people being so large, and continuing to grow, I'm able to lose my friends in the crowd relatively fast. I tell Ollie that I'm heading to the bathroom and slip out of the party.
 

I use the back staircase and take the steps two at a time, running from the music and the people and the noise. I consider going back to my room, but change my mind and pass by the fourth floor. That's the first place people will look for me. Instead, I go to the top floor, which is blissfully empty. The noise from downstairs is just a faint boom, and I revel in the peace.

Nobody has moved in, and nobody is expected to for at least another month so I know that I'm alone. I pass the common room and notice that it's unlocked, so I grab a chair from around the desk and pull it towards the end of the hallway.
 

At end of the hallway, there's a window that overlooks the entire campus. It faces the front of the dorms, and just faintly I can see the black fence in the distance. The corridor has no lights on, so I can see out of the window perfectly and be comfortable that nobody can see me back.
 

I place the chair right in front of the window and sit down, kicking my feet up against the windowsill. I gaze outside into the nearly pitch black evening and let out a long, exasperated sigh. The student center lights are off. All of the halls have their lights off, too. Some of the teacher's houses are still occupied, and tiny yellow lights shine though their windows, but they're so far away from the dorms that I can barely see their twinkle.