The Keeper's Vow (11 page)

Who are you?

He left her in the room with no inclination
of whether he heard her or not and ignored her for the rest of the
day—which must have been an art he perfected given they where
default partners for everything they did in the Practical
Application class (which turned out to be gym on steroids). Their
teacher, or
“Sensei Steve”
as he called himself, didn’t care
that she hadn’t had a Karate class for at least four years. He
judged her like she was training for the Olympics. When she fell
while stretching, he told her he hoped she’d be better in Judo
tomorrow. She’d never even seen Judo.

Not surprising Tristan knew what he was
doing. Everything he did was effortless, including ignoring her.
This time it bothered her. The way he looked at her earlier was
tattooed in the back of her head. It was almost helpless.

Hopeless.

The more she thought about it the more
vacant he became. Which didn’t help when they broke off into pairs
to work on the same kick they’d done all class.

By the time the last bell rang Katie was
ready to change back into her clothes and go home. Until, Tristan
spoke for the first time in over an hour.

“We have Activities everyday except Friday.
It’s Monday.” He said, pointing at a schedule on the gym wall.
“Just pick one. I don’t care what it is.”

“You want me to pick yours too?” Katie said.
Even though he’d ignored her he still wanted to be tied to her
hip?

He gave her a long side glance and then
looked back at the top of the poster:

Activities Must Be Done With Partners!

“Oh.” Katie said, feeling stupid. “Okay,
swimming then,” she said, wanting a nice dip in the pool.

“No.”

“But you said—”

“And now I’m saying pick something else.”
Tristan looked at the list. “Track. You need to run more.”

Katie cursed. “I’m not running.”

“It’s either running or
“Sensei
Steve.”
He’s teaching everything else. I’m sure he’d love
another hour with his favorite student.”

“
I picked
swimming.”

“And I unpicked it. Besides I have nothing
to swim in,” he picked up his bag.

Katie leaned against the wall and closed her
eyes. She hated running. Running was the fastest way to set fire to
her lungs. She sucked in a deep breath. “Fine.” She exhaled. At
least he wasn’t ignoring her now and she’d be running
with
someone. She grabbed her bag and almost lost her balance when she
saw his face. It was there again until he blinked it away. Why was
he looking at her like that? Like she’d burned down his house and
made him watch.

“I know you can hear me—but I didn’t—”

“I’ll teach you how to breathe,” Tristan
said, slinging his bag onto his shoulder. He shoved a hand in his
pocket.

“Wh—What?”

“It helps when you run, so your lungs don’t
burn.”

“Oh, okay—are we just going to ignore the
awkwardness?” Katie said, following Tristan out of the gym.

He looked at her thoughtfully. “I am.”

CHAPTER SIX

They ran for
fifty-minutes straight. Or rather, Tristan jogged next to Katie as
she limped and wheezed for forty-five minutes. She bent over in the
most severe pain of her life. Tristan’s breathing exercise didn’t
help. Not in the least.

“Well,” Tristan said, looking under-worked,
“You don’t have to like it, but you do have to get in shape. Maybe
you should cut the snacks and drink more water.”

“Wow. You must be a popular with the
ladies.”

“I’m just telling you the truth,” he said,
matching his pace with her slow one. They were headed back to the
gym to change.

“Now you’re Mr. Honest?” Katie laughed.
“Just when I’m about to go home. It’s a shame really.”

“What do you mean home? We still have to
train with Lucinda. Katalina, do you
read
anything? You
should have gotten a schedule in that stack of papers they gave
you.”

There it was again, her full name. “What do
you mean train? What did I just do?” She didn’t have an ounce of
energy left to “train”.

“You just did, ‘school’. Now you do
work.”

What did training entail? She wasn’t
prepared for this. All she did today was stack up homework and run
her body into the ground. Now she was expected to
train
?

“I don’t know,” Katie said. Again, her life
was moving faster than she could hold on. Training meant it was
real, all of it. After seeing Tristan stabbed, she never wanted to
see anything like that again. That was what she was training for
wasn’t it? To intentionally hurt someone. Or worse, to be stabbed
by someone and live through the pain…or die.

“It’s not hard when it’s for someone you
care about.” Tristan followed her eyes to his chest.

Her insides froze.

“That’s why most people fight. To protect
the people they care about.”

Katie cringed what did
she
think he
meant? Did he know? Awkward…

“I’ll tell Lucinda you’ll start after-school
training tomorrow,” Tristan said, turning his back on her.

“Oh, yeah. Thanks.”

Tristan started to walk away and Katie felt
abandoned. She was exhausted, mentally and physically, and alone.
The anxiety clawed its way up again, faster now that she had no way
to fight against it. What was she supposed to do? Go home? Tell her
dad? Pretend this wasn’t her life.

Her breathing quickened and she tried to
blink back tears. This was it. Her life was over and she was all of
a sudden expected to know all these new things. She was alone.
Alone and confused and—she was spinning, spinning, spinning….

“One, two, deep. One, two, deep. Like we
practiced earlier. Come on, Katalina. It’s not that bad. One, two,
deep.”

One, two, deep. One, two, deep.
She
repeated it over and over, or at least she thought she did. She
heard it like a mantra. There was a tight feeling across her chest
to the rhythm of her breathing and the constriction felt good. She
didn’t want to open her eyes because she knew he was holding her.
If she opened her eyes she’d cry harder—if she opened her eyes,
he’d see the dark parts of her soul that she didn’t even want to
see.

“You’re having a panic attack. Just breathe
and it’ll pass,” Tristan said as he moved her into the shade. She
was mortified and so she cried harder. It was finally coming out.
All the shattered pieces of her life. All day she’d tried to hold
them together, but they’d slip out of her hands and spill. She’d
pick them up and it’d be okay, but now—she was too tired.

What the hell was happening to her. She
couldn’t explain any of it: Glock, the guardians, the mother she
never had, Tristan
hearing
her thoughts. Nothing made sense
anymore.

It was a while before she stopped crying.
Every time she was close to stopping she’d remembering Tristan was
there holding her and the embarrassment would send her body
racking. She buried her face into his chest because she hated
crying in front of people and it was the only way to keep him from
seeing her face. Worse, his shirt was wet with her tears, and
probably her snot, and she needed to blow her nose badly.

He moved his arm around, unzipping the bag
that was on his shoulder. The bag dropped to the floor. “Here,” he
said quietly.

Without looking she moved her hand out
slowly and he put what felt like a towel in it. A part of her
didn’t want to move from his chest. Being that close to someone no
matter how mortifying it was comforted her. Nevertheless, she
cursed her thoughts and transferred her wrecked face from his chest
to the towel.

She expected him to move away. Or drop his
hand from her back, but it stayed. “You can blow your nose in that
if you want,” he said.

She tried to blow quietly at first but
realized how stupid that was.

“Sorry,” she said between breaths.

“We’re partners,” he said. “If you can’t
lean on me then who can you lean on?”

Katie wanted badly to see if there was a
mocking smile on his face or not. The thought of him making fun of
her brought on more tears.

“Katalina, really I’m not. I was—I was being
serious. Christ, you think I’m a monster.”

She laughed in between a sob, because she
did. She’d been painting him all day as her personal terrorist. How
could she not? He just showed up on her front porch. Bleed out on
her lawn. Shattered everything that was normal in her life. And
worst, invaded her mind.

He stiffened. She felt him add space between
them and realized quickly that though he had come into her life
like a tornado, at this very moment he was the only thing holding
her together. She didn’t dare ask him to move closer. She tried not
to think it.

He didn’t.

She needed to say something, apologize for
what she’d thought, but she couldn’t bring herself to open her
mouth. She was a coward.

“I’ll walk you home,” Tristan said after a
few moments. His voice was tight. Katie had managed to make an
already humiliating situation worse.

She nodded and wiped her face. She handed
him the soiled towel without looking at him.

“Maybe you can keep it,” he said, pretending
to be busy looking through his bag.

“Sorry,” was all Katie could muster.

He didn’t reply.

They walked to her neighborhood in silence,
and like last time he stopped on her street corner. They barely
waved before parting. Katie felt like she should have said
something—thanked him or apologized. But she couldn’t. She let him
walk away without uttering a single word. It didn’t count if he
could hear it in her mind.

Her dad wasn’t home yet to her relief. She
took a shower and laid on her bed with the intention of taking a
quick nap before dinner, but didn’t wake up until ten-minutes
before she was supposed to leave for school the next morning. She
half-walked, half-jogged, to the front of her neighborhood. Allison
was already there staring at her phone.

As Katie walked toward her the only thought
on her mind was if Tristan would walk to school with them. It
wasn’t something she expected, but she couldn’t lie to herself.

“Hey, Kay,” Allison mumbled without looking
up from her phone. “Are you kidding me?”

Katie waited for the news.

“He’s not coming to Preliminaries? God, what
a dick.” Allison squeezed her phone in her hand, her knuckles
turning white.

“What?”

“My dad, he’s not coming to Preliminaries.
All parents go to the Preliminaries, how embarrassing.”

“Allison I have no idea what you’re talking
about.”

Allison shot her a look so violent it made
Katie rock back. Whatever it was, Allison didn’t want to talk about
it.

Allison paced. “If Brian doesn’t hurry up
we’re leaving without him. I do not have the patience for his crap
today.”

Katie didn’t respond. This wasn’t new to
her, sometimes Allison got into moods where saying anything was the
wrong thing. Allison buzzed around like an aggravated wasp. Every
second that ticked by only made her more aggravated.

Finally, Brian appeared around the corner,
but looking just as grim as she felt. When he saw Katie, his
eyebrows raised in the direction of Allison. Katie shrugged and
tried to ignore the disappointment when it looked like Tristan
wouldn’t be there after all.

“So how was your first day?” Brian said,
unbuttoning his shirt a little so it showed is undershirt. Allison
marched off in the direction of school leaving them to follow.

“It was,” all she could think about was her
panic attack and way Tristan smelled warm. “Interesting.”

Brian smiled obviously unaware of her
thoughts. He nodded in the direction of Allison. “So, what crawled
up her ass?”

It didn’t matter that Brian had outwardly
said things like that about Allison for three years, it always
bother Katie. “
Nothing,”
Katie said, disapprovingly.

“Okay, okay. What’s wrong with her?” Brian
rolled his eyes.

“Her dad isn’t going to Preliminaries? What
is that?” Katie said.

“Seriously? It’s really not
that
big
of a deal. Preliminaries is like our Sports Day. We compete for our
places in the finals at the end of the year. It’s not really that
serious. But go figure, Allison is pretty uptight about most
things.”

“Are you doing it?” Katie asked. She caught
herself looking over her shoulder. She still expected
him
to
be there following them.

“We all have to. It’s not really
voluntary.”

“What? When is it?” Her heart skipped a few
beats. She’d have to compete.
Compete
.

“This Saturday. There are posters in the
Field Study room.” Brian patted her on the back and assured her it
wasn’t anything serious. That didn’t help.
He
didn’t take
anything
seriously.