“Oh, that. I’m going out with Nualla now,” I answered, trying to look nonchalant, as if this was common knowledge and not that big a deal, but I think I was failing at it.
“Since when?!” Connor practically shouted.
I looked up to see Nikki walk into the room chatting with another girl, I think named Natalie. When Nikki saw me she smiled and waved before going back to her conversation. “Since Saturday,” I answered, looking back at Connor.
Connor just continued to look at me one eyebrow raised. “So what she just called you up on Saturday and asked you go out with her?”
“It was more like Friday actually, I ran into her at the mall, and she asked me to come hang out with them.” I was skirting the truth as much as I could without flat-out lying.
“So she asked you out then?”
“No actually I think I asked her—” to marry me that is. Oh, and by the way, she totally said yes.
“Who are you, and what have you done with my best friend?” Connor asked, looking at me suspiciously. I couldn’t really blame him; this was totally out of character for me.
“Connor really, it’s me it’s just—” A new better me. One that good things actually happen to. How the hell was I supposed to end that sentence?
Fortunately I didn’t have to, because Mr. Savenrue came through the classroom door. “Okay class, settle down,” he said right on cue.
Everyone took their seats, and he asked us to send him our homework. Connor continued to eye me suspiciously for a few more minutes before giving up and staring blankly at the smart board.
The next two periods went by in a similar fashion, people stared and whispered, and I tried like hell to pretend I didn’t notice. It was like I had grown horns or a third eye or something. I mean sure, Nualla was the most gorgeous girl in school, but really it wasn’t as if I was a total loser.
Never mind, scratch that, they totally had a right to stare. If I couldn’t even justify this to myself, how was I going to justify it to others without making both of us seem outright nuts.
When I entered the atrium I knew this was probably going to be the longest lunch hour of my life. There was the briefest of silences the second I stepped out of the hall before everyone broke into hushed chatter. Pretending I didn’t notice they were talking about me was getting harder and harder to accomplish. Maybe my friends wouldn’t also make me feel like some awful social experiment.
“Hey guys,” I said with an uneasy smile.
Jenny stood abruptly, gripping her tray so hard I thought she might crack it. “So I guess you’ll want to go sit with them from now on, huh?” she said with a huff as she stomped away.
I looked at Connor as I set down my tray. “What was that all about?” He just shrugged and went back to eating his lunch.
“She wanted you to ask her to the dance. And she’s had a crush on you since freshman year,” Beatrice said without looking up. How she could follow our conversation and read a book at the same time was beyond me.
Then I processed what she had said. “You’ve known this the whole time, and you never bothered to tell me!” I just couldn’t believe it.
Beatrice put down her book and turned, brown eyes flashing with irritation beneath her glasses. “Patrick, it is not my job to—” She stopped talking; something over my shoulder had caught her attention. “Hello cute boy!”
“Down tiger,” Connor said under his breath.
I turned around to find Nualla, Nikki, and Shawn standing behind me.
“Um, thanks,” Shawn said with a quirky smile at Beatrice, which turned into a grimace a moment later. My guess, Nikki stepped on his foot.
Nualla looked at her friends then turned back to smile broadly at us. “Do you guys mind if we sit with you?”
“Not at all,” Connor volunteered enthusiastically.
Nualla slid down onto the bench beside me, and my heart started to pick up pace. She had already made a show of us being a couple, but I somehow hadn’t expected her to ever sit with us at lunch. Neither apparently, had any of the other students, who were now openly staring at us.
Connor reached his hand across the table to Nualla. “Hi I’m Connor, Patrick’s best friend, and this is Sara,” he said as he smiled at her. “And Beatrice,” he continued, gesturing with his head to Beatrice who had put her book down for once.
Nualla shook his hand and smiled. “This is Nikki, my cousin, and Shawn. I’m Nualla.”
“So…are you really Patrick’s girlfriend, or has he been playing fast and loose with the truth?” Connor asked Nualla while he smirked at me.
I have the best friends, don’t I?
Nualla smiled and leaned even closer to me. “Yep it’s completely true.”
“How about you cutie, seeing anyone?” Beatrice asked Shawn as she leaned across the table.
“Um,” Shawn answered, looking at Nikki uncertainly.
Nikki shot Beatrice a scowl and the phrase, “if looks could kill,” came to mind.
Shawn was saved from answering because Jenny came stomping back to the table. Only Nualla and I had noticed her approach since Connor had his back to her, and Nikki was still staring daggers at Beatrice, who was still ogling Shawn.
“I forgot my bag, but since you’re here I have something to say.” Jenny glared at Nualla and continued. “If I find out this is just some sick joke and you’re just going to dump him in a week after you’ve had your ‘fun,’ I’ll kick your ass,” Jenny threatened. “He doesn’t belong with someone like you.”
We all just sat there for a moment, mouths open. None of us could believe that those words had actually come out of Jenny’s mouth.
“What do you mean ‘someone like me’?” Nualla asked with narrowed eyes.
Jenny folded her arms across her chest; though she was tall, her red pigtails and the spray of freckles across her cheeks made her look far from intimidating. “Yeah, popular girls like you. You use boys and then dump them after the thrill is over.”
At this Nualla stood and folded her arms as well. “I don’t know what your problem is—whatever your name is.”
“It’s Jenny, Jennifer Bowen. I have been Patrick’s friend for over three years, and if you knew even a lick about him you’d know that.”
“So you’re accusing me of this because I don’t know your name and because you think I’m popular?”
“No, it’s because every boyfriend you’ve ever had you’ve only dated for a week!”
“Nualla’s only had one boyfriend,” Nikki said, looking even more confused than the rest of us.
Jenny turned on Nikki. “Bull! She’s had a date to every school dance for the last three years.”
“Yeah, but I’ve never dated any of them,” Nualla spat back.
“It’s not a crime to ask someone to a dance, you know,” Shawn said in Nualla’s defense.
“Have you even asked any of them if they thought we were dating in the first place?” Nualla asked angrily, gesturing toward the students in the atrium.
“I don’t need to, you asked Patrick to the dance and now you’re dating him. That’s enough proof right there.”
That didn’t even make logical sense. Jenny normally made perfect sense. She had either completely convinced herself that what she was saying was right, or she lost control of all rational thought when she was angry. Or both.
“I didn’t ask Patrick, he asked me,” Nualla said, glaring at Jenny.
Jenny’s argument folded in on itself, and she turned to me. “You asked her out?” she blurted out incredulously.
“Well yeah.” As surprising as it was, it was actually the truth.
“Even though she’s been ignoring you for the last three years?” Jenny asked as she angrily gestured toward Nualla again.
Oh balls, why did I
ever tell them that?
“I never ignored him. I never asked him because I thought he was dating you!” Nualla yelled back at Jenny. I wasn’t entirely sure if that was the truth, but it did make a lot of sense when you thought about it.
“Ooooo,” came a chorus of students around us. It was at that moment we all realized everyone in the atrium was avidly watching us.
Jenny turned bright red and started fiddling with her hair nervously. “We were never dating.”
“Could have fooled me,” Nikki snorted, rolling her eyes.
Jenny’s eyes welled up with tears, and she bolted from the atrium. Then it hit me, all the signs from Jenny that I had been missing over the years. Had she really been waiting for me to ask her out the whole time? Had she just sat there biting her tongue while I was pining over Nualla?
Crap.
I stood up. “Um, guys—I’ll be right back,” I said quickly before I ran out of the atrium into the front hall and stopped. I looked to the left and a girl sitting among a group of freshman girls pointed to the stairs.
“She went that way,” the girl announced continuing to point toward the front right stairs.
“How did you—?”
“We saw the whole thing through the glass,” she answered as she pointed out the window into the atrium.
“Ah, right,” I said before I charged forward, following her directions.
I found Jenny sitting on the floor second floor hallway, knees pulled to her chest, crying. “Jenny?” I said cautiously.
“Go away,” she said in a strangled voice.
I sighed and slid down the wall to sit next to her. “Jenny, I’m sorry I never realized you liked me.”
“Yeah well, you have the observational skills of a grapefruit, so I’m not surprised,” Jenny said into the sleeves of her black V-necked sweater that made up the top of the girls’ winter uniform.
I would have laughed if she hadn’t been crying. “Well that aside, I’m still sorry.”
“For what?” She lifted her head and sniffled, mascara already leaving black trails down her cheeks.
“That I couldn’t return your feelings and that I probably never will. I’ve found the person I want to be with. Can you understand that?” I hoped that she would get the hint because I really couldn’t explain that the reason I could never be with her was because I was already married to Nualla.
She looked away down the hall. “So she really likes you?”
“I sure hope so.” If she didn’t, we were both screwed.
“Well if it turns out she doesn’t…” Jenny said without looking back at me.
“You’ll be the first to know.”
We sat in silence for a while before Jenny sniffled and stood. “I probably look awful. I’ll see you later, okay?” And then she walked down the hall toward the girl’s restroom without waiting for my reply.
“Okay,” I said quietly as I watched her go. I felt terrible about the whole thing, but what could I do? I had absolutely no feelings for Jenny other than friendship.
With a sigh, I stood up and walked back to the atrium. It wouldn’t be very nice to abandon Nualla with my friends the first time she came to sit with us. I hoped that she wasn’t one of the jealous types that would see my running off after Jenny as something other than just comforting a friend.
As I walked back toward our table I tried to ignore the looks I was getting. Everyone aside from my friends was watching me as I moved through the forest of students and lunch tables. I swallowed hard as I slipped back into my seat next to Nualla. Everyone at our table was eating their lunches and not talking. And I had the distinct impression that nothing had been said since I left either.
“Hey guys,” I said cautiously.
“How’s Jenny?” Sara asked, looking worried.
“I think she’ll be fine,” I answered with a heavy sigh.
“So…Nualla, Nikki said you’d only had one boyfriend, and it wasn’t any of the guys you went to the dances with.” I could tell by the way Connor said it he had been dying to ask her since I left. I myself had been wondering the same thing, but would never ask her.
“Yeah,” Nualla replied, putting down her fork.
“So who was it?” Connor asked, leaning a little closer.
My head shot up. “Connor!” I snapped, glaring at him. Connor apparently had also known I would never ask her.
“No it’s okay, you’d probably just find out eventually anyways,” Nualla said with a sigh. “It was Michael,” she admitted in a voice that said she was completely disgusted with herself.
That had been the last name I had ever thought she would say. “What?”
“That prick who was harassing you?” Connor asked, sharing my total disbelief.
“The very same,” Nikki answered in an uninterested manner that told me it was old news.
“When?” After what I had seen last week, I couldn’t believe this could possibly be true.
“I made the huge mistake of dating him the beginning of freshman year,” Nualla admitted, her fork hovering over her lunch like she very much wanted to stab it.
“Then she found out how much of a jerk he was,” Nikki added, poking her cousin.
I rolled my soda can back and forth in my hands. “Well I guess I can see why he’s so angry.” I looked up into Nualla’s eyes. “I’d be pretty upset to lose you too.”
14
What Have You Done?
Monday, January 16th
NUALLA
I could see Patrick out by the parking lot waiting for me as I stepped out of the school building. Even though I had tried to reassure him of my affections in every way, he was still nervously pacing back and forth. Poor thing. I could tell, even if everyone else couldn’t, that he was only barely able to handle all that the last week had thrown at him. That I had thrown him into.
I walked down the steps and started making my way toward Patrick. I was about halfway there when I felt a concussion to the air as someone grabbed my arm and jerked me backward. I didn’t even have to look to know it was Michael.
“You’re dating him now?” he spat venomously.
I ripped my arm from his grasp as I turned around to yell at him. But my voice caught in my throat as the ring slipped out, my rash movements flinging it from its hiding place.
Michael stared at it then recoiled in horror as if the sight of it hurt him. His eyes flicked toward Patrick. “You got…but he’s not.” His mouth snapped shut in a scowl then opened in a sneer, his lip curling back over his teeth. “Nualla, what have you done?”
“It’s none of your business, Michael,” I answered, a threat creeping into the tone of my voice.
He took a step forward and shoved a finger hard in my chest. “It’s everyone’s business, you broke the law. He’s not one of us.”
“I broke nothing. The law states I’m allowed to tell him what we are after we are married. It doesn’t say anything about him having to be turned first.”
Michael’s eyes went huge. “You married him?”
I swallowed hard. Frak. In Kalodaemon custom, the ring around my neck only meant that we were engaged, and I could have gone on for quite a while pretending we weren’t already married. However, I had let Michael get to me—again—and had now blown that option to shiny bits.
“And so what if I am?” I snapped defiantly back at him.
“You’re playing a very dangerous game Nualla, as he is he’s a threat to all of us.”
“He’s a threat to no one,” I said defensively.
A smirk crossed Michael’s face, “Maybe you’re right.” He looked off in Patrick’s direction a glint of malice in his eyes.
I let the threat curl around my words to make my point perfectly—deadly clear. “Michael, if you hurt him, I will
kill you. Make no mistake in that.”
“I’m not stupid enough to touch him now,” Michael said, folding his arms. “Why don’t you just turn him, Nualla? What’s the point in not doing it if he already knows?” My face must have given me away because Michael looked at me in shocked disgust. “You haven’t told him what you are yet, have you?”
“No, not yet.” I looked down, so Michael wouldn’t see how nervous I was about telling Patrick my secrets.
“What are you waiting for?”
“I’m going to let him choose,” I answered, still talking to my boots.
“Excuse me?” Michael asked in a choked voice.
“You heard me,” I said, looking up at him defiantly.
Michael leaned closer. “You can’t do that, Nualla.”
“Get away from my girlfriend!” Patrick shouted from behind us. Apparently, I had shocked Michael so much his influence field had dropped without either of us noticing it.
Michael grabbed the ring around my neck and nearly ripped the delicate chain clear off. “Don’t you mean your—wife?” Michael asked through gritted teeth. He let the ring drop as if it disgusted him.
He took a step to the side and began to move away as Patrick stepped in front of me. It was like watching two circling jungle cats hiss at each other. Michael looked Patrick dead in the eye and let his illusion slip just the slightest, so the true ferocity in his eyes would show through. Most humans would have pissed their pants, but Patrick didn’t even flinch.
Michael looked around Patrick into my eyes his illusion already back in place. “You’re playing a dangerous game, Nualla—a very dangerous game.”
And with that last bit of warning he whipped around and strode off to join his group of friends. One of them—Penelope—eyed us with dark, hateful eyes. She had hated me as long as I could remember and my dating then snubbing of Michael, the one thing she coveted above all else, had only made that hatred worse. And Michael ignoring her as he pursued me in vain probably hadn’t helped either.
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