The Pull of Destiny (65 page)

Carefully I unclasped the
locket, softly trailing little kisses on CiCi's neck as I took the locket off.
I slipped it into a Ziploc and slid it into the capsule. Just as I was putting
the metal cylinder into the rock, the waitress stomped up to our table and
threw down the bill.

“You guys need anything
else?” she asked, her black hair wisping from her bun as she furiously chewed
on her bubble gum.

“Um, no,” I replied, unable
to take my eyes away from her bitten to the quick nails. “No, we're good.”

Without another word, she
left our table.

CiCi stared after her, her
hazel eyes upset. “She looks so stressed out.”

I checked out the bill.
Fifteen dollars. Reaching into my wallet, I took out several crisp notes and
stuck them in the little bill book. “I'll leave her a tip,” I said to CiCi.
“It's on my list. And anyway, she looks like she needs it.”

I didn't tell CiCi how much
of a tip I was leaving her, but I didn't need to. Her eyes shone. “You're so
sweet, Luke.”

“C'mon, we should go, if we
want to be at Liberty Island before the dark.”

“You didn't tell me we were
going to Liberty Island,” CiCi said, excited as she stood up, picking up her
bag. I noted with satisfaction that her plate was empty.

“You didn't ask,” I joked,
putting an arm around her shoulders as we gathered up all our stuff and walked
to the door.

“Hey! Sir!”

I turned around. The waitress
was standing by our recently vacated table, the bills in her hand. She looked
like she was the victim of a nasty joke, her top lip lifted in a sneer.

“Yeah?” I asked, even though
I knew full well what she was hollering after me about. Damn. I had so wanted
to make it out of the door before she realized.

“Your bill was only fifteen
bucks. You left me- a hundred dollars!”

CiCi (and almost every other
diner in the place) did a double take as they looked from her to me then back
to her.

“I know,” I said, not exactly
relishing the attention. “Keep the change. Great service.”

Well, she was quick in
getting our food out!

A slow smile made its way
onto her face. It made such a difference compared to the prior sullen
expression that had been stuck on her pallid face. “Thank you, so much,” she
said fervently.

“No problem,” I said, turning
to leave. An old man tapped me on my shoulder.

“You just made that poor
waitress’s day, son,” he said in a croaky voice. “You're a good kid.”

I honestly didn't think that
I was anything close to being a 'good kid', but the smile that CiCi gave me
made me feel pretty darned special.

***

Once at Liberty Island, we
walked around the small, windswept grounds, trying to find a place for our time
capsule.

“Ooh, Luke! Over here!” CiCi
waved me over to a pile of rocks that looked promising. I trudged over to her
to see what the excitement was all about. “See, there's a hole right here
that's big enough for our capsule!” She pointed at a massive oak tree with a
small opening in its trunk. “I doubt they'll chop it down in the near future.
What do you think?”

“It’s perfect,” I replied,
swallowing hard. The ferry trip here had played havoc with my stomach,
awakening my nausea again. CiCi took a closer look at me. “Are you okay, Luke?”

I waved my hand, nodding.
“Yeah, I'm fine.”

“Give me the capsule and I'll
put it in the hole.”

I handed it to her and she
jammed it in, pulling a few rocks from the pile to place in front of the hole
'just in case'. Then she stood back to look at her handiwork.

“Good job, CiCi,” I said,
putting my hands on her shoulders. “And we're going to meet in this same,
precise spot in exactly 5 years-.”

“To the date?” CiCi cut in to
ask.

I nodded. “To the date.”

“Roger that.”

I was silent for a moment.
“And if anything happens to me-.”

“Luke!” CiCi sounded
scandalized.

“No, really, CiCi. If
anything happens to me- if I don't make it, all I ask is that you give Faith
all my stuff. But keep the t-shirt and the letter. Those are yours.”

CiCi clung to me, hiding her
face in my chest. “Nothings gonna happen to you, Luke,” she said, her voice
muffled by my t-shirt. “You're going to have surgery, get better and meet me
here in 5 years and we're going to laugh at this very conversation. Okay?”

I stepped out of her embrace,
cupping her exquisite face in my hands. “Yes, ma'am,” I smirked, feeling better
nevertheless. CiCi's little motivational talks always had a beneficial effect
on me. “Now, are you gonna kiss me or what? Just so we can remember that too
when we come back in 5 years.”

 
Celsi’s Point of View

There’s just something about
spending an afternoon with the guy you like, watching him get tackled by a gang
of rowdy preschoolers and seeing him enjoy every minute that makes me want to
burst into song.

Liar!

Okay, so I
had
to
blame my off-key singing while preparing dinner on something, and Luke
did
look super cute playing with the kids at the daycare and- I’m rambling again.
Let’s just say it was a nice change for me to waltz around the kitchen, singing
‘In my own little corner’ by Brandy and daydreaming about Luke. For the past
week, I had been the living definition of ‘nervous wreck’ in the apartment.
Nate was drinking again. I still hadn’t forgotten (or forgiven if you really
must know) the whupping he gave me last time and I was trying to stay out of
his way as much as possible and get his meals cooked ahead of time.
Unfortunately, we had precious little in the way of food but I did what I
could. Aunt Kelly still refused to take my money.

Still, I refused to get
bogged down in negative thoughts as I danced around the tiny kitchen, humming
happily. I turned to snag the pepper shaker from the counter, almost shrieking
as I saw Aunt Kelly standing in the doorway, an amused grin on her face.

“OMG, you scared me!”

I leaned against the
countertop, my heart thudding in my chest as I fanned myself with a spatula.

“Sorry,” Aunt Kelly
snickered, not looking apologetic at all. “But you were having so much fun; I
didn’t want to ruin it.”

“How long have you been
there?”

“About halfway through the
song.” She winked at me. “Great singing voice. You must have gotten that from
me.”
Lord, how embarrassing.
“I figure you had a good day?”

“I did, auntie,” I said, my
heart still thumping. I didn't have the disposition to handle scares like that.
“I went to the daycare after school.”

“With a certain special
someone?” Aunt Kelly asked, a twinkle in her eyes.

“Ye-es,” I admitted, a
bashful smile twisting up my lips.

“You two sure have been
spending quite a bit of time together lately,” Aunt Kelly noted, shrugging out
of her black jacket. I took it from her, placing it on the coat hook behind the
door. “I'm surprised you're not going steady yet.”

I giggled. Going steady?
Please don't let this be a prelude to a 'back in my day' speech!

“Well, he hasn't exactly said
anything about us 'going steady',” I admitted. I can't hide much from Aunt
Kelly, I trust her too much.

To be honest, I wasn't quite
sure where I stood with Luke. Sure, he kissed me often and it was good, but he
didn't really say anything about us dating, or if we were exclusive or just
hanging out. And I really wanted to know. It would be really awesome to hear
him introduce me as 'my girlfriend.' I smiled to myself.
Introduce me to
who, though?

“Do you think he's serious
about you?”

I looked up at Aunt Kelly in
surprise and she gazed back at me.

“I think he is. Well, to be
honest- I really don't know,” I muttered, looking at the ground.

“I know you don't want to
hear it, but I have to ask you this, simply because I'm watching out for your
best interests,” Aunt Kelly said softly.

 I nodded. I knew she was
looking out for me and I wouldn't expect anything less from her. It just sucked
that I didn't know if Luke liked me enough to want to date me or not.

“I know auntie.”

“This is, in all probability,
just a passing fling for the boy,” Aunt Kelly continued calmly. I swallowed
past the lump in my throat. “How often do you see something like this
happening, Celsi? An heir falling for a girl from the ghetto?”

Sighing and knowing that she
was 100 percent right, I replied, “Not very often.”

Especially not in our hood.

“It's basically the kind of
thing that only happens in novels or in fairytales. This isn't fiction, baby,
it’s real life. Your life. I'm not trying to say that Luke doesn't care about
you. All I'm saying is that you probably shouldn't take this to heart. That
way, if he ends up dropping the ball on you, you'll leave with most of your
heart intact.”

“I understand, auntie,” I
said woodenly, not liking this little lecture at all. Shouldn't
take this to
heart?
Surely it was too late for that by now!
Luke already has most of
my heart.

“Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I'm
wrong, Celsi,” Aunt Kelly said, reaching out to pat my hand. “But boys like
Luke and girls like you- it’s never meant to be.”

CHAPTER 26

curiosity
killed the cat.

Luke’s Point of View

I woke up with my mom on my
mind for two consecutive mornings after I told CiCi about her. It was an
occupational hazard, but it still made the pain of not knowing her that much
deeper. Usually, I tried to pretend like she had never existed because
honestly, how much does it suck to know that your own mother is out there
somewhere but you can't get in touch with her and vice versa, no matter how you
want to? Whenever I happened to talk about her at length (and that hasn't
happened often in my life) I walked around in a daze for a few days after that,
just thinking about her. Where she was, what she was doing, wondering if she ever
thought about me at all...

Times like those, I wished
Grandma was still alive, just so I could ask her more about my mom. Selfish, I
know, but I didn't exactly have a choice. All dad ever said about mom was
crazily cryptic and right now, I didn't have the brain power to decipher it.
Grandma Astor had been the only member of the Astor family who made an effort
to talk to me when I was younger and went to the family summer home in Martha's
Vineyard with my dad. All of the other Astor's would just go through the
formalities and that was it. When she was confined to her bed after her first
stroke, I went to visit her several times a week and she started telling me
stories about her life and how forcing dad to marry my mom was the worst thing
Grandpa Astor could have done.

“Your father didn't love her
at all, you see,” she would explain to me in her weak, reedy voice. “All he had
been interested in was the sex. He didn't think he would be stuck with her
after that. Your poor mother kept hope alive, but she never had a chance to
make him love her.”

All those thoughts started to
depress me and on the second morning, a Monday, I got out of bed, hell-bent on
doing something to banish the images of my mom and grandma from my mind. After
taking a long shower and changing, I took Faith to the Playgarden in Tribeca
for the whole morning and most of the afternoon. Fulfilling my brotherly duties
and having fun with my awesome little sister at the same time- how cool was
that?

We got home at around 3pm but
dad was expecting some 'VIP' guests and Hope was flitting around the penthouse
nervously, making sure everything was perfect. There was no way I was going to
hang out in such a tense environment, so I decided to bring out my inner
stalker and go meet up with CiCi when school was out.

Hopefully, I wouldn't run
into Ahmed. Now that was bound to be awkward.

The instant CiCi was out of
Dalton grounds; she spotted me and veered in my direction, a hesitant smile on
her face. “Hey, what are you doing here?” she asked curiously as I hugged her
tightly, burying my face into her curly hair. “Are you here to appeal?”

“What?” I asked, confused for
a second as I pulled back. “Oh, you mean appeal to get back in to Dalton? No.”
I shook my head. “My dad already had a talk with Principal Herman. He refused
to let me back in.”

CiCi sighed, her eyes
worried. “I can't imagine how your dad reacted.”