Blooming Life (Fate's Intent Book 10)

by Bowles, April

  My mother smiled and started to turn. “And it’s Ruby to you.”

  “Okay—Ruby.”

  “Hurry along and Dirk, I already have your clothes picked out.”

  She walked away and I turned again, sighing loudly. “Great. I’m so excited.”

  “I’m sure it will be fun.” Lynn said.

  “Maybe. I’ll show you were you can pick a dress.”

  I took her upstairs and right into my parent’s room. That was a little weird but I reminded myself why I was in here.

  “Wow.” She said. “The tour didn’t come in here.”

  “Private sections, you could say.”

  “Yeah.”

  “In here is where you want to be.”

  We went into the closet and I showed her the section she’d want to look in.

  “Wow. I’ve never worn anything this nice before.”

  “They’re just clothes. Your best outfit is nothing at all.”

  She turned from touching the dresses and leaned into me. “Yours too.”

  “Well, your father knows you’ll be staying late. Maybe we sneak away early and I can show you my room.”

  “I think I’d like that very much.”

  I leaned in the rest of the way and we kissed with our tongues touching almost immediately. Of course it made both of us want more and we lost ourselves in the rows of clothes. Her hands locked around my neck and mine were looking for any part of her skin that I could touch.

  “Excuse me.”

  My father’s deep voice interrupted us and we pulled away from each other almost terrified.

  “Father! Hi—ah—this is Lynn. Lynn, this is my father, Darius and we were not doing anything.”

  “Yeah, he just had something on his face right there that I was getting.” Lynn said.

  “With your tongue?” My father didn’t sound impressed.

  “Ah—”

  “Dirk, may I have a word with you?”

  I could only imagine the things he was going to say and clearly didn’t want it to be in front of her.

  “You should pick something so Adele can get it to fit you.” I said, turning to Lynn. She could only nod like she was worried for me and I met my father out in his room.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing? In my closet, Dirk, really?”

  “Father. I’m sorry. We were just talking and things got a little out of control but I swear that I wasn’t going to—”

  “Do you have any idea what this would have been like if your mother walked into that?”

  “I said I’m sorry. What more do you want?”

  “I want you to tell me you’re not getting attached to this girl.”

  I sighed figuratively and literally. “Father. I know. Okay? I’m not. She’s my friend. She’s just a part of the experience.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t want you to—”

  “I know. I won’t.”

  “Just make sure you still don’t tell your mother about this. She doesn’t know that I’m telling you what she tells me.”

  “About Lana?”

  “Yes.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Other than your mother boasting about how amazing it will be to train her? Not much.”

  “Hair color? Eye color?”

  “Why would those be important?”

  “There has to be a physical attraction before there can be a spiritual.”

  “Well, I suppose but first, let me ask what you’re into?”

  I paused for a moment and thought about the two girls I would spend my time with most. There was one obvious trait that they both shared that I thought was important.

  “Blonde.”

  My father smiled. “Blonde? Like your girlfriends?”

  “They’re not my girlfriends.”

  “Okay. Well, you’ll be pleased to know that she is blonde.”

  “She is? Blue eyes?”

  “Um—I don’t think so. She’s not of Seni. Is that a requirement?”

  “No. I can work around that if she’s blonde.”

  “Just so you know, I haven’t seen her. I’m just telling you things she tells me.”

  “I know.”

  “Well, get back to your date and go to Adele’s room once she picks one. Seth and Bryce’s dates are being fitted there as well.”

  “Okay, father.”

  He left and I turned back into the closet. Lynn was just standing there, her hands just lightly touching the dresses.

  “Find one?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. They’re all making me nervous. I don’t know what will look good on me.”

  “Would you like a second opinion?”

  “How about a full opinion? You just pick.”

  “Okay.” I approached her and looked through the dresses. They were my mother’s so they were mostly red but she could pull them off and I picked one I thought would suit her best. “I’ll bring you to Adele so she can help you with the fitting.”

  “Okay.”

  I held the dress for her and we walked out of the room to see Seth and Bryce with their dates, who happened to not like Lynn. They were already in dresses like they had just come out of Adele’s room but they didn’t waste any time to look at Lynn and wonder why she was even here.

  I spoke first to ease by the awkwardness. “Hey, looking good.”

  “Hi, Dirk.” Kari said. “You really should have brought Janie.”

  “Yeah.” Becca agreed. “She’s better suited for these kinds of things. Prettier, I mean.”

  Lynn did the usual thing of ducking her head to act invisible and I don’t know what happened to me. I just went off. I could feel the fire moving my hair and my eyes had to be red. “Watch your mouth! I want what I want when I want it so you should just back off!”

  They looked a little scared. I didn’t mean to but I’ve put up with this kind of talk about Lynn since I met her two years ago and I just couldn’t anymore. There wasn’t anything wrong with her, not to me.

  “Come on.” I took Lynn’s hand and brought her into Adele’s room where all of our mothers happened to be.

  “Dirk, is something wrong?” My mother asked, probably worried because my hair was on fire and I was actually touching Lynn.

  “No. Everything is fine.” I walked her over and handed the dress off to Adele.

  “Let’s get you fitted.” Adele said. “Dirk, you can wait outside. She’ll be right out.”

  I obeyed, not that I wouldn’t have minded staying in the room. I’ve already seen her naked plenty of times but I guess it would be a bit different with them in the room so I went into the hall to wait.

  “What are you still doing out here?” The other four were still in the hall like they were waiting for me.

  “I think you have something to say.” Seth said. His eyes motioned to the girls and I sighed.

  “All right. I’m sorry I yelled. I just don’t get girls. Why do you hate her so much?”

  “She’s weird.” Becca said. “And kind of a loner.”

  “Why because she likes being alone? Seth did that for months before he started fucking you so he must be a weird loner too.”

  “Why bring me into this?” He asked.

  “I was just saying. Of course no one thinks that of you. You’re awesome.”

  “I know.”

  They all laughed.

  “I just don’t get why everyone hates her just because what her father does for a living.”

  “It’s gross.” Kari said.

  “You’re living in a city that is controlled by a family of killers and yet you have no problem being around us.” They were quiet now like they knew there was no reason for it. They were just going with the crowds when it came to judgment. “Shit, we’ve even killed before because that’s our future too.”

  “Dirk!” Seth shouted. “We don’t talk about that!”

  “Is that true?” Becca asked. “I’m so turned on right n
ow.”

  My hands flew up in the air and I turned so I wasn’t looking at anyone while trying to control this nasty buildup of emotion. “Ahhhh! I don’t get girls!”

  “Dirk.” My mother’s voice made me spin around and she was looking at me like something were wrong.

  “What?”

  “Where did you get this girl?”

  The question was odd and I looked at the others who looked equally confused.

  “What do you mean? We met when we started to go to public school. She’s not random.”

  My mother came to me with a hand to my face and spoke like she was truly sorry in my ear. “I just want you to know that you have full rights to your future.”

  Why was she telling me this? She couldn’t possibly know that father told me about my destiny with an Assassin. He said never to tell.

  I was curious just the same and my mother turned her eyes towards the open door. Lynn was there in the dress I picked out. She looked—beautiful. It fit her perfectly and she also had her hair up for the first time that I’ve ever seen. It was all completely pulled back to show off her shoulders with none of it being able to hide her face and I didn’t really know how I was supposed to react.

  “You look amazing.” Kari said.

  That was a surprise but Lynn did her usual thing of feeling really out of place, trying to hide but couldn’t. “Thanks, I guess.”

  “She wasn’t kidding.” Becca said. “You’re stunning.”

  Lynn was acting shy and uncomfortable to put her eyes on me. “It’s the color, I think. I’ve never worn anything this colorful.”

  “It doesn’t make them wrong. You look incredible.”

  “Dirk—” My mother cut in. “You should have been getting dressed. Can’t show up looking like that with a beautiful girl like this.”

  “All right, mother. I just got a little distracted.”

  “Go. Now. She’ll be okay with her friends for a few minutes.”

  That kind of worried me. They weren’t exactly her friends but I could trust Seth and Bryce to not allow their dates to be too mean.

  “It’s okay.” Lynn said. “You should want to get out of that.”

  “I’ll be two minutes.”

  She nodded and I hurried away to my room down the next hall.

  I still couldn’t quite wrap my head around what my mother was saying. I didn’t really want to settle yet, did I? My fifteenth birthday was just a few months away and it would be another whole year after that before I actually got to meet Lana. Would it have been right to attach myself to someone until then? What if I didn’t want to let her go? I was annoyed with myself but I knew what my father would say. The answer was no. I couldn’t. Lana was going to be an Assassin. Being amazingly beautiful and talented was a requirement. I could wait—or that’s what I kept telling myself but my evening with Lynn was one to remember. She was like the Belle of the Ball. Everyone noticed her and she even started to break out of her shell a little and welcome the attention. It was awful because it made her all the more appealing and my decision harder but I remained the gentleman and walked her home that night.

  I even tried to down play the evening the next day at school. I never mentioned anything that happened and I tried not to look at her like I was seeing her in that dress again. It only helped that she went back to her typical in-her-face hairstyle. She didn’t sit with us at lunch so I mostly only saw her in our last class together. She talked about the night but I tried to talk about what we should do about tonight instead though it wouldn’t be much with her. Her father wanted her home right after school today so I had to make last minute plans and caught up to Janie after class before giving up completely and just going home.

  “Hey, where are you off to?” I asked. “Want to go to the spring?”

  Unlike her, she was being unusually nervous. “Ah, hey, Dirk. I can’t. I’m—ah—going to someone else’s house.”

  “Oh, that’s okay. Maybe—”

  “No. I don’t think so.” She sighed deeply and tried to keep from looking at me while we walked to the stables. “I can’t anymore.”

  “Can’t? Why?”

  “I’m going to be fifteen soon and I realized that I need to start focusing on my future. You’ve kind of beyond proven that we’re not going to go anywhere besides somewhere dark for sex but I need more than that, especially now.”

  “Oh.” I didn’t know what else I should say.

  “It was fun while it lasted though.”

  I nodded and someone called to her ahead of us. “Janie! Come on! I got your horse!”

  I looked and Brock was on his horse, holding steadily to hers.

  “Brock? Really?” I asked, trying to keep from laughing.

  “Yup. I’ve been physically with him a few times when you were off doing whatever with Lynn and things are starting to get serious. I’m going to meet his parents.”

  It was everything she wanted and since she couldn’t get it from me, she went elsewhere. I wasn’t disappointed except for tonight since I didn’t have anyone else lined up.

  “Good for you. I hope you get everything you’re after.”

  “No hard feelings?”

  “No. Of course not. Why would you ask that? We weren’t together or anything.”

  “I hope we can still be friends but I’ll be more like one of the guys now.”

  “Yeah. Sure. Not a problem.”

  She skipped merrily away to her horse and she and Brock left the grounds.

  Great. Now what?

  “Hey, Dirk.” Seth called. “We’re going to the spring. Are you going with someone?”

  That was an interesting question. Was I going with someone? How fast could I think of that answer?

  “Nah. I’ll just go home. Cover for you.”

  He smiled and turned away with Becca like he was in a rush to leave, Bryce too.

  I got my horse and started a slow ride back to the palace. What was I going to do now? All I had was Lynn. Wait. All I had was Lynn? I stopped on my horse and turned abruptly with the horrid realization that her and I could be together now that I didn’t have anyone else. I couldn’t allow that to happen.

  I raced back to the school and found someone else to meet the guys with. She was pretty, not blonde but she would do and opened me up to a whole other variety of girls I never would have thought of if Janie never split. Things started to get back on track and I was much less paranoid about getting attached to someone. In fact, I might have put my soul on vacation for a while and left every aspect of emotion out of the next several months. I was with who I wanted to be, when I wanted to be and never changed my schedule for someone else. I was in complete control.

  Chapter 41

  Seth

  He was a complete narcissist. Dirk has been fifteen for a few months and yet ever since Janie started solely dating Brock, he thinks it necessary to try out every girl at our school before he has to leave it. I wasn’t really sure what his issue was and I didn’t care to ask.

  Bryce and I would be fifteen soon and at some point here, unsure when, our mothers would be leaving for a year to train the new team of Assassins; Cadence. I knew she turns fifteen about a month after me but one of the other mystery two could turn before then and my mother would miss my birthday. I shouldn’t be so hard on her if she does. Yes, it would be the first one in my life but I knew what she would be doing. Thinking about it, I almost wanted her to so it could be over with and I could finally be with Cadence.

  “I’m not telling you.” Mother said at another failed attempt to find out when she was leaving.

  “Before our birthday?”

  “Seth, we’ll let you know when we’re leaving. We won’t just leave. Now, hurry home after school today. We have all kinds of fun planned.”

  “Fun?” Bryce wondered. “What kind of fun?”

  We looked at our mothers and they were being very quiet, not making eye contact for very long.

  “You’re leaving soon, aren’t you?” />
  “Now, Seth, would you just—”

  “Mother, why can’t you just say so? Why does it matter if we know when you’re leaving in advance?”

  “You know why.”

  Cadence, of course. I missed her but I haven’t seen her since her mother moved her away. Bryce could never find her and it’s been nearly a year.

  “It’s okay, mother. I don’t even know where she is or where it is you’ll be taking her and I won’t look.”

  “He means I won’t look.” Bryce said.

  “I hope not. This is the most important year to stay away from her.”

  I didn’t want to talk about this anymore. I didn’t want to think that it had to be another year.

  “Come on.” I said to Bryce while I got up from my chair. “We’re going to be late.”

  He got up without saying anything to follow.

  “Have a good day.” Jaylyn said.

  “Where’s Dirk?” Ruby asked.

  I turned and walked backwards towards the doors. “Knowing him, he got an early start.”

  I didn’t think it was a good idea to say why. I just turned around and headed out for another day.

  “So, when do you think they’re leaving?” Bryce asked.

  I shrugged. “Maybe soon. That’s why they want to spend time with us.”

  “I guess. A year is a long time.”

  “I know but we’ll be here, focusing on stepping into adulthood. Not having mothers around to baby us may actually help.”

  “So—we should cancel our dates with the girls to spend time with them?”

  I shrugged again. “Maybe. They’ve done a lot for us. It wouldn’t kill us to suffer through whatever they want to do.”

  “If you say so.”

  It made sense. Our mother’s deserved our attention sometimes. Why not now?

  We told Dirk about it when we arrived and found him in the middle of a group of girls. He didn’t seem too excited about it but at least he understood. He may be on a complete one-track mind these days but something he’d never openly admit, he loves his mother and knowing she’d be gone for a year made him stressed.

  We walked our horses home that evening, each of us wondering what it is we’d be walking into. Our mothers seemed happy to see us but sad at the same time.