The Purity of Blood: Volume I (12 page)

As always class was more than interesting.
 
His lectures, as were the Professor’s before
him, were amazing to listen to.
 
Not only
because of his vast knowledge of the subject, but also because of his evident
passion for it.

When class ended, Tabitha and I
started talking about our plans for the weekend.
 
She was going home to see her parents and do
laundry.
 
With Mike also going home, and
Ryan having soccer practice all weekend, it seemed I was going to be left all
alone for the first time.
 
As we gathered
up our books I told her I’d been thinking about doing an abbreviated hiking
trip on the trails we’d traversed last weekend.
 
The weather was supposed to be nice and I didn’t fancy staring at the
walls for two days straight.
 
At least
this would keep me busy on Saturday and I could spend some time in the library
on Sunday.

It sounded like
a good plan and she was kind enough to give me some pointers for a solo trip
into the woods.
 
She even said she would
mark a map for me.
 
She was sure I could
handle it alone, but said she’d feel better if she gave me a map marked with
landmarks and my route all laid out.
 
It
was sweet that she cared.
 
That seemed to
be her basic nature as a person.

We parted at the
exit doors of the hall, and when she headed off towards the gym, I started in
the direction of my drawing class.
 

Deciding to take
the route that would keep me outside the longest, I got off the sidewalk and
started across the grassy area between the buildings.
 
My classroom being conveniently located in
the rear of the large building, I headed around to take the long way to the
back door.
 

A moment later I
heard “Miss Donnelly?” coming from behind me.

As I turned, I
saw Daniel striding up next to me, his arms full of papers and a few
books.
 
A small, almost uncomfortable
smile appeared at the corners of his mouth as I faced him.

“I think you can
call me Sara,” I said before I realized the words were out of my mouth.

Gees, hold back the sarcasm, Donnelly.
 
He’s your teacher after all.

“If you prefer,”
he replied in a silky tone I hadn’t heard him use before.
 
“I just wanted to check to make sure you were
alright.
 
I know you said you weren’t
injured yesterday, but you were definitely shaken after … the incident.”

Instinctually I
looked down at my uninjured leg.

“Thank you,” I
answered.
 
“I’m fine.
 
I probably should have asked
you
if you were alright.
 
I mean, I did kind of knock you into the
bushes pretty hard.”

He tried to hide
a chuckle, but did a poor job of it.

“Is that funny?”
I asked a little annoyed at his response.
 
I mean, I did save his life.
 
Didn’t
I?

He quickly
changed his tone back to his usual serious one.

“No, it’s not,”
he answered, but I could tell he was lying.
  
“I’m fine.
 
I was just
surprised.
 
I didn’t see you coming and
that’s … a little odd for me.
 
Not much
takes me by surprise.”

“That must be
nice.
 
Pretty much everything takes me by
surprise,” I said, another hint of sarcasm leaking out.

“Well, I’m glad
not everything does, otherwise you might be dead right now.”
  

Uncomfortable
under his intense gaze, I started walking again.

“I need to keep
walking if I’m not going to be late for class,” I suddenly wanted to end our
conversation.

For whatever
reason, he fell into step with me as I continued down the lawn.
 

“Mind if I walk
with you for a few minutes?” he asked, but it seemed pretty obvious he was
going to no matter what I answered. “So what do you like to do when you’re not
pushing people into shrubbery?” he asked, peering over at me from under a
fallen lock of his sandy hair.

“Not much.
 
I study a lot; spend a lot of time in the
library.
 
I also like to go hiking.”

Against my
better judgment, I stole a glance at him.
 
He was watching me, waiting for me to continue.

“I went hiking
for the first time last weekend with a bunch of friends.
 
I think I’ll go again this Saturday by
myself.”

Why was I telling him this?

“Is that
wise?
 
You don’t know the woods around
here that well yet.
 
It’s very beautiful,
yes, but it’s also very easy to lose your way.”

I snorted and
shook my head.

“I have a pretty
good sense of direction.
 
Between that,
my map and my compass, I think I’ll be alright,” I said confidently.

A low
Humm
was his only
response.

I stopped and
turned his way.

“What’s that
supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.
 
It’s just that – well, you kind of saved my
life.
 
I don’t know how I feel about
letting you wander off into the forest all by yourself.”
  

He sounded
genuinely concerned, which made it hard for me to feel like what he’d said
wasn’t also a little bit sexist and condescending.
 
Which it was.

“What if you
fell and really got hurt?
 
You could die
of exposure before someone found you.”

I didn’t
answer.
 
I guess that was a valid point,
but I didn’t want to admit it.

“I wonder …” he
said, his voice trailing off.

“What?”

“Well, I was
just wondering if you’d consider amending your plans a little.”

He was hinting
at something, I could tell.
 
But not
wanting to give him the satisfaction of asking what it was, I just tilted my
head slightly which he must have taken as an indication to continue.

“Would you
perhaps do me the honor of allowing me to accompany you?”

I stood there
silently for a moment.
 
I wasn’t
expecting this.
 
Did I want to be alone
with him in the wilderness where there were no witnesses?
 
No, that wasn’t it, yet something kept me
from answering him right away.
 

“I assure you, I
know the hills around here like the back of my hand.
 
There is no chance of getting lost with me
along.”
 
He again used those soft silky
tones that could calm a charging bull.
 

“That would be
alright.”
 

I heard the
words come out of my lips but couldn’t believe I’d said them.
 
I expected him to smile in response but as I
spoke his expression didn’t alter.
 
 
If anything, it darkened slightly.

We continued
walking again.
 
Why had I agreed so
quickly?
 
This really puzzled me.
 
After all, he was basically a stranger.
 
A really strange stranger from what I’d
seen.
  
It seemed somewhat
incomprehensible to me that, although I felt uncomfortable around him, for some
reason, I didn’t feel in danger from him.
 
I think that was the reason I didn’t try to get out of my
acceptance.
 
Although I had a sneaking
suspicion I would regret it later on.

When I stopped
at the back entrance to the building, he immediately opened the door for
me.
 
Then as I started to walk in he said
“I’ll pick you up behind your dorm at seven on Saturday.”
 

Remembering my
manners, I turned to say goodbye, but he was already gone.
 
Looking down at where his shadow had been, I
paused for a long moment.
 
What was it
about him that put me so on edge?
 
There
was some quality about Daniel that was hard to describe, but it was almost like
he had the stink of death on him.
 
Not a
physical smell, but more like an emotional state.
 
He fascinated me, when intellectually I knew I
should have been repulsed by him.

How could you be so attracted to someone who equally repulsed
you?
 
Deep down I knew it wasn’t so much
his superficial looks that attracted me.
 
If anything, they made me feel small because I knew he was so much
better looking than I was.
 
Then what was
it that drew me to him?
 
He was terse,
rough edged, passionate and unfriendly, even bordering on hostile at
times.
 
Yet, I was drawn to him on some
deep elemental level I’d never experienced before.
 
And although I was reluctant to admit it,
that frightened me.

The
next few days were difficult.
 
Some small
voice inside me said not to tell my friends about my new plans.
 
I didn’t know how they would react and quite
frankly I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be talked out of them or not.
 
When I was with them, I did my best to avoid
the subject and managed to evade outright lying, but I still felt guilty for
committing the sin of omission.
 
Tabitha
would be stunned into silence.
 
Mike
would be shocked because I think he really did think Daniel was gay.
 
Ryan would probably just sit there and pout
angrily.
 
And Ben?
 
Well, I hadn’t seen Ben since the incident,
but I think he would seriously council me against it.
 
I kept thinking about the look they’d
exchanged as we’d walked away from the bushes.
 
What had that been about anyway?

Friday night rolled around before
I realized it.
 
For a change of pace,
Ryan, Tabitha and I had made plans to go hit some of the local hot spots in New
Paltz for the evening.
 
This wouldn’t
take long as, picturesque as New Paltz was; it was still a bit of a one horse
town.
 
Mike had already left for the
weekend, but Tabitha, who hated to drive at night, was leaving early in the
morning. As we all had plans to get up early, we wouldn’t be making an
especially late night of it.
 
But I think
each of us had things on our minds and thought a change of scenery would be the
best distraction.
 

I actually
hadn’t seen much of town yet, having only ventured into it a few times on quick
shopping trips.
 
Now the library, I was
intimately acquainted with.
 
Sad, I
know.
 
But as beautiful a campus as NPU
was, after a long week, it felt somewhat confining and we all wanted to stretch
our legs away from the now overly familiar sights of campus.

We started with
dinner at the College Diner instead of the normalcy of the dining hall.
 
As we ordered our food, I glanced around and
strangely realized I was looking for Daniel.
 
He had continued to sit near us for dinner every night over the past week,
but had never made a move that indicated he might want to join us or talk to me
again.
 

I’d found myself
wanting him to have company at his table nestled in the shadows.
 
He always looked so alone and I had to
constantly fight the urge to get up and go join him.
 
Openly talking to him would mean my plans for
tomorrow would be out of the bag and I wasn’t ready for that.
 
Of course, Tabitha would ask why I’d gone to
him and I wouldn’t be able to lie to her.
 
Was he sitting in the dining hall right now wondering where I was?
 
Part of me desperately wanted to know.

Oh, get over yourself,
Donnelly.
 
He’s only going with you out
of some misguided sense of obligation or pity.

After
dinner we went to P & G’s.
 
It was a
tavern located at the top of Main Street as it started to descend downward in
the series of book stores, restaurants, local bars and interesting shops that
made up the center of town.
  
We ordered
a few drinks and played darts for a while, but once the rowdy after hour’s
crowd started to stumble in around ten o’clock, we figured it was time to go
and headed home.
 
Ryan didn’t seem that
clingy tonight.
 
It was a nice change of
pace.
 
I really should at least try to
like him.
 
So cute, so nice.
 
It must be me who had something wrong with
her.
 
I mean, why wouldn’t I like
him?
 
What more was I looking for?
 
Maybe I’d figure out what that was
someday.
 
I think maybe I’d be happier
when I did.

As my alarm sounded at 6:15, I
wished for the millionth time that God had made me more of a morning
person.
 
It must be nice to wake up and
want
to get out of bed.
 
I wouldn’t know, it had never happened to
me.
 
Thankfully, I’d already packed my
backpack the night before.
 
It sat on the
floor, stuffed with granola bars and water along with the map Tabitha had
marked for me, my trusty compass and a few other odds and ends I thought I
might want to bring along.