“You stupid, manipulative, controlling bastard,” I said to Adrian as I got closer to him. I was feeling brave with all those people around us.
“Ah, Ria, always so sweet.” He smiled and then became serious in a second.
“You are really enjoying this, aren’t you? But what if Paula’s parents find out about your relationship?” I said.
“If they find out, your parents will find out about you and Michael,” he said coldly. “Actually, I’d love to see that happen. Would be fun.”
I gritted my teeth not to say anything else and walked away before Paula could see us and blame me for molesting her dear boyfriend.
Michael was waiting for me in the café near the university where we usually went. Just a sight of him sitting there made me smile, and I had to refrain myself from running up to him. Damn, it almost seemed like I had to refrain myself from doing something all the time today.
“Hey, you’re here!” Michael got up to give me a kiss.
“Guess what, Paula and I are having girls’ night tonight,” I said as we were sitting down.
“Wow, that’s an achievement,” he said.
“Yeah. Did you know that the bastard can feel where she is all the time?”
“Really? He can do that?” Michael frowned. “Well, that sucks.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I can’t believe she’s become a completely different person because of him.”
“And did I change you somehow and you didn’t notice?” He smiled playfully. “Am I turning you into a zombie?”
I laughed. “Sure, honey. I’ve never had to hide anything from my parents before.”
“Oooh, you see, all guys eat their girlfriends’ brains.” He raised his hands up, imitating claws. We managed to stop laughing when the waitress brought me my coffee.
“What are we going to do about my parents? I really want to tell them,” I said.
“Then do it.”
“But it’s not that easy! I don’t know how they will react,” I said. “What if they force me to break up with you?”
“Then we’ll have to meet in secret.” He smiled, touching my hand.
“That could be fun.” I laughed. “I’m going to tell them. I have to… before someone else uses it against me.”
“You mean before Adrian tells them?” He became deadly serious, watching me intently with his warm green eyes.
“Yes.”
“I won’t let him push you into something if you’re not ready.” Michael took my both hands into his. “Listen to me, Ria, do this only if you feel you should. Don’t do it because of him.”
“It’s not just him… it’s me, too,” I said.
“Tell them. You know I’ll be there for you no matter what.”
“Ok,” I said, getting the mobile phone out of my pocket. Michael frowned.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to tell them,” I said, knowing that it was now or never.
“Over the phone?”
“Yeah, better than being in front of them, trust me.” I smiled. “This way they’ll have time to calm down before they get here.”
“Ok, you know the best,” he said as I dialed the number. I chose to call my mom rather than my dad because it was more likely that she would have time to listen to me. The phone rang a few times and I outstretched my left hand to Michael, hoping that his hold on me would help me to stay calm.
“Yes?” my mother finally answered. I took a deep breath.
“Hey, mom,” I said, trying to sound cheerful, but completely failed at it.
“Ria? Are you ok?”
Why the hell my parents always assumed something was wrong when I called? Oh, maybe because they called me in most cases and I called only when I had a problem or needed more money. Right, that was it.
“Yeah, I’m… great,” I said. “Mom, listen, I have to tell you something.”
“Sure, honey. What is it?”
“I have a boyfriend.”
“Oh, alright.” I could hear the surprise in my mother’s voice. She definitely hadn’t expected me to say something like that.
“His name is Michael,” I said. “Michael Teregov.”
“Teregov?” she said, and I squeezed Michael’s hand really hard, waiting for my mom to recognize the name.
“Yes, have you heard of his family?” I said. There was silence on the other side of the line and then some typing. Was my mother googling the name?!
“I’m not sure, honey. The only Teregovs I’ve heard of are those whose element is water,” she said. “And surely you can’t be dating someone who…”
“Mom, I’m dating him. I know his element is water, but we get along great and I think we might have…a future together,” I said, my heart beating like crazy.
“What? No, that’s not possible. You can’t have a future with that guy! Think about it, honey,” she said angrily. “You can’t throw away your family, your inheritance, your life… just because some good-looking guy made you believe you loved him! He’s not crazy to throw away his life either, so he must have been looking for adventure and you fell for it.”
I couldn’t believe what my mother was saying. It almost seemed like I had told her I was dating Adrian. Michael wasn’t like that and he would never do anything to hurt me, especially not try to just get me into his bed and leave. But how could I convince my mother?
“Mom, Michael isn’t like that! I’m not stupid. I know what it means for me, but didn’t you tell me that love was the most important?” I said.
“Yes, it is! But you should marry someone of your own element who you love, and to find him you have to date guys who are acceptable,” she said.
“Mom, I’m not talking about marriage yet, but I want to try out all the options. I thought you’d support me no matter who I chose. Besides, I’m not the only child. Even if I choose to marry Michael one day, it won’t harm the family tradition,” I said.
“Ria! You’re out of your mind! That boy has completely confused you!” she yelled. “Your dad and I will come this weekend and we’ll sort this out. Ok, honey?”
“Mom!” I was upset, but I realized that my mother probably needed time. “Ok, we’ll talk about it. Oh, and just so you know, Paula is dating Adrian Liandre.”
“What?!” I had to move the phone away from my ear. Yeah, it was mean of me to do that just so my mother would see there were worse things than me dating Michael. I regretted it as soon as it went out of my mouth, knowing that it could hurt my best friend. I was completely sure my mother would call Paula’s mother in a second. I just hoped Paula’s mother was a lot more understanding than mine.
“Yeah, well, bye now,” I said, and ended the call.
“Paula will never forgive you for this,” Michael said, and I frowned. I didn’t need him to tell me that.
“You shouldn’t have done that!” Michael seemed truly upset by it.
“I know!” I snapped at him, getting up from the table and nearly spilling everything. I ran back to the university, not paying attention to Michael yelling my name. I had no idea what was wrong with me. Must be that time of the month.
I spent some time crying in my room and then I focused my attention on doing homework and studying. I finished just in time to prepare my room for the party, which also meant smuggling some beer bottles and clearing up my stuff so we could sit on the floor. Strangely enough, I didn’t feel upset about what had happened anymore. But there was a strange warmth spreading through my body. Could it be my element?
I heard a knock on the door and went to open it. Paula smiled at me as soon as she saw me. Damn, I'd missed her so much. I let her in, taking a box of chocolate cookies she brought with her, and closed the door.
“It’s so hot in here,” she said. Hot? I hadn’t even noticed it. I placed the cookies on my desk and went to open the window. The cool breeze reached me, and I shivered. Had I accidentally warmed the room with my element? Oh well, I didn’t have time to worry about it.
&nbs
p; “So, how’s everything going?” I asked as we sat down on my blue plush carpet. My parents had actually sent me the carpet since they knew I liked to sit on the floor and didn’t want me to catch a cold or something.
“Exams are going great. Love life is going great. Experiments… not so well.” She sighed.
“You still find time to do the experiments?” I was impressed. No one but Paula could manage all that. But then again, when she was studying, she actually concentrated on it while I spent hours staring at the book and trying to memorize one stupid sentence.
“Sure.” She smiled. “Adrian is helping me a lot.”
I raised an eyebrow at that. Could Adrian actually be helping? That was hard to believe. I handed her the beer bottle that I'd just opened and went to grab the other one for myself.
“Ok, I’m going to promise you something,” I said, and she looked at me expectantly. “I’m not going to say anything bad about Adrian in your presence if we can just be best friends like we used to.”
“Alright,” she said. “Does that mean we can talk about our boyfriends again? I’m dying to ask you something about Michael.”
“Sure,” I said, wondering why I always chose the wrong timing to do things. I was almost sure Paula would never forgive me for what I had done, and this moment of our renewed friendship wouldn’t last long.
“Did you sleep with him?”
“You are not asking me that!” I frowned and then laughed. “No, we figured it’s too early for such a thing. Wait, don’t tell me you and Adrian…”
“We did.” She giggled. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”
I stared at her and took a good swig of the beer. So she had slept with Adrian and he was still around. What the hell? I'd thought he’d move on when he got what he wanted. Was it possible that Paula had managed to steal the monster’s heart? Somehow I doubted it.
There must be something else he wanted from her, or she just looked good on his arm in public. Or maybe I was just being a jealous bitch. Well, not exactly jealous of her being with Adrian, but jealous of her because she was happy. She always seemed to have everything, but on the other hand, she could have been thinking the same about me.
“Aren’t you afraid of catching the disease?” I said.
“No, we’ve been very careful,” she said. “I think I’m in love with him. But it worries me that I can’t find anything in his DNA.”
“What if you don’t find the cure?” I said. “What if no one else finds the cure? I hope you’re not thinking of marrying him.”
“I don’t know what will happen. I just know I’m ready to spend my life with him no matter what if it turns out that we really love each other,” she said.
“Paula, you can’t do that. I won’t let you marry him. I bet your parents won’t allow it either. Being with him now is one thing, but when the disease shows… he’ll kill you,” I said and tears appeared in my eyes. “I don’t want him to hurt you.”
“Heeey, don’t worry about me. I haven’t decided anything yet,” she said. “It’s not like he proposed or anything.”
“Yeah, but you’re actually considering marrying him one day,” I said. “You can’t have a family with him.”
“Aren’t you considering marrying Michael too?”
“Yeah, sometimes. But that’s not the same. Michael’s not going to turn into a murderer. And we can adopt children if we want,” I said, realizing how weird this sounded. I wasn’t ready to marry or have kids and probably wouldn’t be for some years.
“…unless my parents forbid me from seeing him,” I added. “Told my mom today. She was furious.”
“Wait, you told your mother about Michael?” She stared at me in shock. Yeah, no one had seen that one coming, not even me. It had been a weird day, really.
“Yeah, I shouldn’t have, but I did it,” I said. There was no point in crying over spilt milk, but if there was a way to turn back time, maybe I would have done differently.
“Do you think they’ll understand?” She looked genuinely worried. And it shouldn’t have surprised me. She was a good friend. I was the one who was a bad friend here, and she kept reminding me of that, not even knowing it.
“I don’t know. I hope so.” I sighed. “They’re coming to see me.”
“You’re brave, you know?” She smiled, clearly trying to cheer me up. “I wouldn’t have dared to tell my mom about Adrian. She only knows I have a boyfriend, but doesn’t know who he is.”
“What do you think will happen when your parents find out?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Probably freak out. But I don’t care,” she said. “I’m not a kid anymore. They don’t have a say in who I choose to be my boyfriend. And my grandma promised to help me if my parents started making trouble.”
“So your grandma is the only one who knows?”
She nodded.
“You have a really cool grandma. Mine would have… you don’t want to know.” I laughed, imagining my grandma’s furious face. If I chose to marry Michael one day, I was sure she wouldn’t want to see my face again.
“Forget about it then,” she said. “I didn’t mean to upset you even more. And, please, stop doing that!”
“Doing what?” I frowned. I had no idea what she was talking about.
“Getting this room even warmer than it is,” she said, waving her hands in front of her face to get cooler.
“But I’m not doing anything,” I said, confused.
“Yes, you are. I can feel the tingling in the air,” she said.
“I’m not…” I started to say and then realized I really was using my element. How the hell had that happened again without me noticing?
“Sorry,” I said, “it must be stress.”
“No problem.” She shrugged. “I can get some wind in here if you want.”
“That would be great!” I said, and a few moments later felt the air moving around us. Of course, the familiar tingling sensation was there, and I smiled. Some of the papers that I had left on the floor near the bed were now flying around us, and I had to get up to catch them. Paula laughed.
“Isn’t it better now?” she asked when she was done. Indeed, I felt much better immediately.
“It’s great,” I said. “So, is there anything I can do to help you with the research? Of course, you can pull Adrian’s hair out by yourself now.”
We both laughed. Then she looked thoughtful for a moment.
“I don’t think you can help me with this. I’m trying to get Adrian to find some of his parents’ old medical files, but he refuses every time I ask,” she said. “I understand that it’s hard for him to go through his parents’ old stuff, but it could be a key to cure the disease or keep it in control.”
“Why do you think there’s something useful in those files? You know exactly what Adrian’s parents had been doing,” I said.
“Yeah, but I want to know when exactly the disease showed,” she said. “That could mean a lot to Adrian. This way we can never know when…”
“Umm, I don’t think there are files about when the disease showed,” I interrupted her. “Even if those files had existed… they were probably destroyed already. It would have been a risk to keep them.”
“I’m aware of that,” she said. “But maybe there is something different in the early medical files that no one noticed at that time. Maybe doctors didn’t know where to look.”
“Well, Adrian won’t give them to you, so it doesn’t really matter, does it?” I said. I was skeptical about her theory and didn’t want her to get in danger just because someone found wrong files in her possession. It was good that Adrian hadn't given them to her.
“Maybe I can persuade him.” She smiled, playing with a lock of her shiny hair. No, I didn’t want to know how she was planning to do that, so I just shook my head at her in disapproval.
“A little bird told me there is going to be a ball next weekend,” she said.
“Huh, a ball?” I raised an eyebrow at her. �
�Do we need fancy dresses for that one?”
“Yeah, actually we do,” she said. “We’re celebrating I don’t how many years of our university, and they want it to be special.”
“Are we going shopping?” I fluttered my eyelashes, making her laugh.
“Yup, we are,” she said, and I went to hug her. I really missed doing these little things with her. We talked some more about anything that came to our minds. It seemed like we had come together again after many years of separation. And I really enjoyed catching up with things that had been happening in her life.
Someone knocked on the door and I had trouble getting up from the floor to go open it. I must have had a beer too many because the world was spinning around me for a moment. I nearly closed the door as soon as I saw Adrian standing there.
“What the hell do you want?” I said.
“Her.” He pointed at Paula, who was giggling behind my back.
“You found me again,” she said.
“Of course I did.” He flashed us a smile. “I always do.”
Damn, there was something so wrong about this. Why Paula couldn’t see it? I would freak out if Michael tried to control me like that. But she was just smiling and looking dreamily at him.
“You shouldn’t have looked for her. She wasn’t missing,” I said bitterly. He’d managed to ruin my good mood solely by showing up.
“I’m sorry your boyfriend doesn’t care where you are,” he said, and I wanted to hit him in that arrogant face. Paula came to stand between us, planting a gentle kiss on Adrian’s lips. His cold gray-blue eyes stared at me as he kissed her back. Damn, what was Paula doing with that jerk?
“You two will just have to get along better.” She frowned. “I don’t want my boyfriend and my best friend to hate each other.”
“We will try then,” he said, smiling. “Anything for you, my love.”
I wanted to throw up and it wasn’t because of the beer.
“Ria, please, will you try?” Paula pleaded. “For me? Please?”
Dangerous (Element Preservers Series, Book 1) Page 6
