by Nixon, Diana
“Good. I learned a lot. Evan Murray will be teaching me before the start of my regular classes.”
“Evan?” I asked in surprise.
“Yes. Being a high level student he was appointed as my temporary tutor.”
“Right,” perhaps too quickly I said. Eileen looked at me suspiciously.
“What's wrong?” she asked.
“Everything‘s wrong!” I wanted to shout. Not only was I going to be a complete failure at the Festival, now even my best friend, judging by the colors of his aura seems to have a thing for the girl who... Who what, Christian? Damn it!
“No. Everything is fine,” I said. “It’s just not the best of days today. Sorry, I have to go. We'll talk later, okay?”
“Okay,” looking confused, said Eileen.
But could I understand it myself? Why did I freak out? Because of the fact that Eileen will now spend more time with Evan than me? And who am I to her? Just her best friend’s brother, whom she saw just a few times in her life.
It looks like I'm starting to get worked up even more. But the truth is that I'm no one to her, so I have no right to be jealous.
Damn! If only it was that simple…
Man, what an idiot I still am! I haven’t told her about the reason of my call!
I had to do something about this mess; otherwise I could remain the very same idiot in her eyes forever. Anna! That's whom I needed! I didn’t know whether her classes had already ended, but turned back and went to the dormitory.
Anna Delgado was a second year student of Embry. Everybody knew about her brilliant talent to speak the language of flowers. In addition, Anna was a person who always knew the way out of any complicated situation.
“Christian!” she greeted smiling.
“Hi, Anna. I need your help,” almost pleading, I said.
“Oh, I’m already used to being popular these days! Everybody needs my help. So what’s the matter?”
“It would be great, if you help me with some flowers.”
“That’s obvious, Christian. Flowers are my life,” dramatically raising her arms, she sang.
Anna reminded me of Evan a little, only in a female shape. She was funny, and she was always in a good mood.
“I need to say with the flowers that I’m a complete fool and I’ll try to fix everything that I’ve done wrong. Well, something like that,” I tried to explain.
“This is easy, nothing special here,” she said. “I will give you a list of the flowers you will need.”
Reading the names of all the necessary flowers, I went to find them. The gardens of Dever saved a lot of time rather than a trip to the florist. Embry students worked really hard so that the gardens always had all sorts of flowers. For this purpose we had special greenhouses, where at any time of day or night you could find everything your heart wished. At least in terms of flowers. So I went there too.
Purple hyacinth, camellia and peach blossom...
Deciding that it would be better to make a surprise for Eileen, I didn’t want to give the bouquet to her in person. Calling Amanda I asked her to help me. In the note I attached, I wrote the following:
“Let the flowers say what I haven’t managed. P.S. Will you meet today at eight p.m. at the west gate? C.”
Eileen could ignore the invitation, but I didn’t give up hope to see her soon.
Chapter 10. The message (Eileen)
Upon entering the room after the very strange conversation with Christian, I found Amanda in the company of an unknown girl who stood leaning over something on my desk, defiantly laughing.
“Hi,” I said. The laughter and the conversation stopped immediately. The girls exchanged a mysterious look.
“Hello, I am Anna Delgado,” replied the stranger smiling.
“Nice to meet you,” I said, smiling back. “What are you trying so hard to hide from me there?”
I wanted to see what they both were hiding so carefully behind their backs.
“You’ve got a message here,” Amanda said, and moved aside.
There was an incredible bouquet of beautiful flowers on my desk. The flowers’ names I didn’t know.
“It’s so beautiful! Who are the flowers from?” I asked, inhaling the fabulous fragrance of the bouquet.
“Actually, I wanted to ask you the same question,” Amanda said, raising her eyebrows questioningly.
“How would I know, I've just got them myself!”
“Gardenia is a flower of secret love,” Anna pointed.
“Anna is Embry,” explained Amanda. “There’s no note, and the meaning of the message is quite clear, so we’ve decided that you must know who it is from. Or you've got so many admirers just in one day that you can’t even guess?” she asked cheerfully.
Honestly, only one admirer came to my mind, if he could even be called that. But judging by how glum he was when I met him only a few minutes ago, flowers were not from him.
“How did you decide that the bouquet was meant for me at all, if there was no note?”
“It was brought by the courier, who said that the flowers were for you,” while continuing to mock, Amanda said.
“Next time, don’t forget to ask the sender's name,” I said.
“Anyway, it’s so romantic!” said Anna dreamy. “Okay, I have to go now, so I'll see you girls later,” she added, leaving us alone.
“She is funny,” I said.
“Yes, she is,” Amanda agreed. “You have no idea how much she knows about everyone! She is throwing a party on the occasion of our arrival. Speaking of which... Have you already decided what to wear? If not, then I'm going shopping tomorrow and you could go with me.”
“I haven’t had time to think about it yet. And anyway, I...”
“Almost forgot about the party,” finished for me, Amanda, shaking her head disapprovingly.
I nodded guiltily.
“But I think the idea of shopping is not bad,” I said, trying to gain my friend’s favour.
“Yes, but we need one of the teachers, to go with us.”
“I don’t think that this will cause any problems. Students are allowed to leave the campus,” I said. “Besides, I can ask Evan to accompany us. He's my teacher now. So...”
“Wait a minute, my dear friend. Did you say Evan? You mean Evan Murray? The very Evan Murray?”
“I don’t know the reason of your amusement, Amanda, but yes, I am talking about him. Alexis asked him to be my personal tutor until my basic training begins.”
“Wow! That’s crazy! And you haven’t said anything about such news?” she protested, sitting next to me on the bed. “Do you know what they say about him?”
“I have no idea. What?”
“That he is the coolest guy all around Dever! Well, except for my brother, of course, but we are not talking about him right now. So, Anna said that most girls attend all the parties just because of Evan. And yes, I saw him. I’m speechless!” raising her eyes to the heavens, she said.
“What was there about Christian?” I asked as if by incident.
“Well, Christian is an inaccessible dream. Again the words of Anna, he’s not seeing anyone and indeed never gets into a serious relationship. By the way, he and Evan are best friends. They always come together, but unlike my brother, Evan always has fun attracting the attention of his numerous fans.”
“Best friends, then,” I thought. Perhaps that was the reason for Christian’s grudge. He was definitely mad at me, or rather at us. Apparently, the best friend hadn’t mentioned his new pupil.
“Great,” I said exhausted and closed my eyes.
“This is exactly my point!” Amanda exclaimed. “I hope Evan won’t miss our Friday party,” smiling dreamily, she added.
It seemed like we were talking about completely different topics. Suddenly there was a loud ringing of her mobile phone that made me even jump.
“Geez, Amanda, I told you to change the ringer! This one will finish me off soon!” I snapped before I laid back on the pillow.
I needed at least a few minutes of peace and quiet. Amanda left, but as soon as the door closed, someone else came.
“Oh, God! Who’s there?” I thought irritably, walking to the door.
It was Anna.
“Eileen, I just wanted to ask you about the theme of the party,” she said apologetically, apparently noticing my annoyed expression.
“What theme?” trying to sound friendly, I asked.
“Usually, we choose something special to make the party more interesting. I've been thinking... Maybe something in a casino style, with tuxedos and nice cocktail dresses? There hasn’t been anything like this for a long time already.”
“Absolutely, I think Amanda would love this idea.”
“Excellent! All the guys would love it too. There are so many things to be done!” clapping her hands, said Anna, and walked briskly toward her room, muttering something on the way.
In a few minutes, Amanda returned... holding another bouquet.
“This one, I hope is for you?” I asked.
“No. Today you are a star,” she said, handing me the flowers. “However, this time everything’s clear - these are from Christian.”
Even without her explanations, I already knew that. Having barely touched the bouquet, I immediately felt the familiar warmth.
“Too bad, I don’t know the language of flowers,” I said, disappointed, after reading the note.
“Actually we have Anna for this,” Amanda suggested.
“I don’t think we should bother her so much. Besides, she is too busy now with the preparations for our party. By the way, we both need cocktail dresses; the theme of the parties is the casino.”
“Really? Then we definitely need shopping tomorrow! As for the bouquet, the message can be deciphered with the help of the handbook. I signed up for an additional course of Embry, so they gave me this book in the library,” pulling the right one out of a pile of books, said Amanda. “Okay, let's see what we have here. Purple hyacinth means “please, forgive me”, camellia means “admiration” and the peach blossom – “I am your prisoner”,” smiling broadly, she summed up. “It looks like someone managed to finally melt my brother’s icy heart,” she added, looking at me meaningfully.
As much as I did want to deny her words, I knew that the red blush on my cheeks, had said it all for me long ago, so I asked her about something else.
“How do you know so much about flowers? I’ve never seen any of them before.”
“You seem to have forgotten whose daughter I am,” Amanda said. “In our interior garden you would find all of the above.”
“Yeah, I still can’t get used to the idea that there are so many geniuses around me,” I said, joking.
“Well, if you can’t get used only to this idea, the progress is obvious, sweetie. I thought that you were more worried about your own being unique. By the way, about the meeting... I think, you should go.”
“Who said you could read someone else’s notes?” I said, blushing even more.
“Who is talking about someone else’s? The note is from my brother to my best friend,” Amanda said innocently.
“You don’t think it’s a date, do you?”
“You don’t need to be a genius, Eileen, to guess,” she chuckled, hiding behind the bathroom door.
The rest of the day I spent in futile attempts to find the answers to some questions. Was it possible, to become attached to a man, knowing him only for… how long? One and a half days? The fact that there was some connection between Christian and me was obvious. That in itself scared me even more than the question of how strong the connection could be. Just thinking about him made me feel nervous, in a good way, of course, not to mention his touch that spread fire all over my body. But the weirdest thing was our constant awareness of each other’s feelings.
The clocks already showed half past seven. Did I really want to go to the meeting with Christian? Of course! What a stupid question! Despite my attempts to suppress some feelings towards him, I couldn’t resist that invisible force of gravity that was between us. Forgetting about every, or at least some of my doubts, I primped and went to the western gate. While my thoughts were connected to Christian, I felt my own excitement. Or maybe it was his excitement? I couldn’t understand.
Chapter 11. The lake (Christian)
I had already been waiting for Eileen at the gate for an hour. No, she wasn’t late. I couldn’t stop pacing my own room, and went straight to the appointed place, not even knowing whether she would come. I could only rely on my feelings. They told me that the excitement I felt at that moment increased with each passing minute, as if my own emotions were mixed with someone else's.
A few minutes later I felt some familiar trepidation. She was there. Turning around, I saw Eileen just a few steps away from me. She smiled enigmatically and incredibly attractively. She was wearing a light white dress, and a cascade of her golden hair fell over one shoulder. At that moment, I thought she was a vision, an angel. Despite the fact that it could sound too trivial, I couldn’t find other words to describe her beauty and my own feelings.
“I knew you would come,” smiling I said.
“You must be a very confident young man, Mr. Fairey,” raising one eyebrow in amusement, she replied.
“Not at all. I just could feel you,” I grinned, taking a few steps towards her.
“To be honest, I don’t really like it. Every girl should have her secrets, and I’m like an open book for you,” she said disappointed.
I took her face in my hands and looked into the depth of her beautiful eyes.
“Actually, you are the biggest mystery of this world. And, believe me, I would have given up a lot, just to know more about you,” I said, seeing that my words caused a charming blush on her cheeks. Frankly, I liked that effect very much. I didn’t know what was going on with me, but every time I saw her or touched her, the only thing I could think about was sweeping her my arms and kissing those inviting lips of hers. I was dying to taste them and feel their touch on mine.
“So why did you choose such an unusual place for the meeting?“ she said, changing the subject and took a step away from me. I immediately felt lonely without her.
“There’s one place I’d like to show you. It's not far away from here.” I took a deep breath and tried to focus on the cause of this meeting.
“Don’t we need permission to go there?” she asked, walking beside me. Her proximity made me feel confident and incredibly powerful, as if she was the source of my life energy.
“No, we are not going beyond the campus territory. These gates lead to the University Park. It stretches for miles along the border. This is sort of another security measure to prevent the outsiders from finding us so easily. You have already noticed the crystal shape of Dever, right? But in reality it’s a combination of thin layers of sand, wind and water. These nature elements are protecting our territory. So ordinary people simply can’t find us.”
“Are you saying that during the existence of Dever, this place has never been found before?”
“Never. The thing is that Dever was built on the lake. And its crystal shape is transparent, it can be easily hidden under the water surface. No one can see it there, so when the humans come to the borders they see nothing but an endless dark lake between the mountains.
“I can’t believe that! This massive construction can just disappear under the water!”
“Well, it doesn’t happen every day, of course. Only if there is a real danger or the risk of being disclosed. I’ve never witnessed it myself, but those who have, say that they have never seen anything as magical and breathtaking. It feels like swimming in the ocean in some huge glass globe.”
“That’s incredible! So many security measures! Not surprisingly, students may not leave the campus unless accompanied by teachers.”
“Actually, not just teachers. Only first and second year st
udents need the escort. It is believed that other students already know how to protect themselves if necessary. So for example, I can accompany you if you want to leave the campus.”
“Really? Amanda and I wanted to go to town tomorrow, so... you could go with us,” suddenly said Eileen.
“In this case, you need another attendant. As a student, I can take responsibility only for one beginner.”
“So, it means we must find someone else.”
“Why do you need to go to the town tomorrow?”
“Our friend is throwing a party this Friday, and we naturally need to go shopping.”
“Casino, tuxedos and all the staff?”
“How do you know about that?”
“Well, if you don’t mind Miss Eileen, I'll be one of the gentlemen in a tux,” I said, winking at her. “Anna has already invited me.”
“I don’t even want to think how many people will be there,” said Eileen, shivering. I realized that the tingling on her arms was caused not by the thought of the party. She was scared...
“What place is this, Christian?” she asked in a trembling voice.
“It's... Eileen, what's wrong?” I stopped, looking at her worriedly.
“I don’t know. Just some strange feeling. Like I was pulled back by some invisible force.”
“That's what I see,” I admitted. All her feelings were reflected not only in me but also in her aura, gradually filled with a dark purple color – the symbol of the lack of vital energy and anxiety. “I wanted to show you the lake.”
“The lake?”
“Yes, the one that you saw in your dreams. When I started to see your dreams, I immediately recognized this place. I’d seen it before. My father brought me here two years ago, when I first arrived to Dever. There are so many legends about it. But if you're scared, we can go back. I just thought that seeing it in reality, will help you somehow to get rid of your nightmares.”
“Maybe you're right,” she whispered. “I want to come closer.”
We walked a little along the mountainside, and stood on the shore of a huge dark lake. I felt Eileen’s pulse quickened, and a shiver ran all over her body. I came closer and touched her hand... And then she cried:
