by C M Thorne
CHAPTER 5
Caleb and Dinah pulled up in front of their father’s house a little after eight in the morning. The house was empty, but Caleb still looked through the windows along the front of the house nervously while Dinah used his keys to let them in. She opened the door slowly, only cracking it as she looked at him peering through the window to Lizzie’s room. “We good?” she asked in hushed, low tones.
“Yeah, Lizzie did go with him,” he affirmed and came up behind her as they walked inside. He shut the door and locked it, peering out the front window to make sure his dad wasn’t coming, though it was somewhat irrational. He couldn’t help but feel that they were going to get caught or something. “Will you be the look out so I can grab my things?” He asked looking to his sister.
She rolled her eyes, but walked up to the window without protest. “Go,” she answered.
He walked down the short hallway to his room. Everything looked the way he had left it. That was good. A small part of him had worried that the pastor would’ve gone through his things after the confrontation two nights before. He had torn through Becca’s room one night in a fit after she had stormed out of the house. It had actually been the final straw that had made her leave though. The pastor hadn’t done anything like that since. Caleb still worried though as the pastor used to make them give something up whenever they misbehaved, forcing them to earn it back with ‘godly behavior.’ Needless to say, rebellious and often boisterous Dinah had spent much of their childhood with a rather barren side of the room that she shared with Lizzie before Becca had moved out. He checked his closet and shelves compulsively, seeing that their father had not appeared to have even touched anything.
He grabbed his small suitcase from the top of his closet and set it on the bed open. Not really thinking, he pulled clothes from his closet and his dresser, quickly filling the suitcase. Caleb zipped it up when there was no room left and took it out to Dinah. “Will you take that to the car while I grab my bigger suitcase from the garage for the rest of my stuff?” Caleb asked, not waiting for her to answer as he walked to the other side of the house.
“Sure thing,” she answered, taking the bag and slipping out the front door.
He rushed into the garage for his suitcase, coming back in as Dinah came through the front door looking nervous. HIs heart stopped for a moment, thinking their father and Lizzie had returned for something, but she shook her head and he sighed, jogging back to his room just to be cautious.
“Relax!” She called after him, giggling slightly even though she looked as nervous as he felt.
“I know!” He replied, slipping back into his bedroom. “I’m just nervous! Father will not be happy about this. I guess I feel bad.” He finished emptying the measly amount of clothes wanted to keep into the larger black suitcase. “He’s going to come home and my room will be cleaned out. I don’t know.”
“Oh, leave him a note then,” Dinah yelled back to him. “It’s more than I did.”
Caleb remembered the fit their father had flown into when Dinah had her room cleaned out the day after her graduation. She had friends help her and they took everything. Even the furniture. The pastor still fumed over the ‘lost furniture,’ which had belonged to their mother. Lizzie still hadn’t forgiven Dinah for stealing some of the only heirlooms they had from Caroline. Caleb often thought it to be the source of their bickering and inability to be in the same room for more than ten minutes.
He shook his head at the memories, feeling bad for basically doing the same thing. He grabbed some books and supplies from his closet, arranging them in the suitcase so his clothes would protect them. He made sure to grab his laptop, power cord, and favorite books. “Do you think I should leave a note?” Caleb asked, looking over the few things left behind in the room.
“Up to you,” Dinah answered, sounding irritated. “Just make it fast either way!”
Grabbing a piece of paper from a notepad in his nightstand, Caleb quickly scribbled down that he had been planning on moving out after graduation, so this was only happening a little ahead of the schedule he had imagined. He finished the note by saying that he hoped his father could understand and forgive him, signing it simply with his name. He left the note on the edge of his bed and left the door open as he grabbed his suitcase and left.
“Ready?” Dinah asked, opening the front door.
“Yep,” Caleb nodded. “I think I have almost everything I own.” He laughed lightly as he looked around the small living room.
Dinah said nothing as she walked out to her car. Caleb pulled the door closed and locked it behind them. Dinah popped her trunk and he maneuvered his suitcase next to the smaller one into the small trunk of the older car. He hopped back into the front and Dinah tore away from the sidewalk before he had even had a chance to close the door.
“I need to head to work pretty much after we get back,” Dinah turned the radio up. The mellow voice of the indie crooner floated through the car over the guitar and violin of the background music. “What do you have going on today?”
“Just headed to the library on campus so I can finish up this one paper,” Caleb answered, looking out his window. “I figured I could take the bus to school. It isn’t that far from your place.”
She nodded as she stared out from behind her dark sunglasses at the road, “Yeah, yeah. Not too bad.” She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel to the music and glanced over at him. “I’m sorry this is happening. I’m sorry if I made it worse.”
“No,” Caleb responded, “you really didn’t. The pastor was going to throw me out or send me away once I told him I’m gay anyway. Now I don’t even have to bother telling him,” he laughed hollowly, looking up at the cloudy sky.
Dinah sighed, “Don’t say that.”
“What?” He looked back at her. “You know his feelings on homosexuality. I don’t know if he’d be more ashamed of me or Becca for her fiancee. We would definitely be in competition with each other.” He chuckled and watched the road.
Dinah smirked, “You would undoubtedly win if you date the gay vampire.”
Caleb broke out laughing as his sister cracked and lost herself as well. They listened to music for the rest of the short drive back to Dinah’s place. She pulled around the back of the building to the limited number of resident parking spaces, which was a small sub-level under the building. They parked close to the small garage lobby, which was a glassed walled room housing the stairwell and the building’s one elevator. He grabbed the suitcases from the trunk, but Dinah took the smaller one from him without a word. He followed her up to the door, car beeping behind them as she locked it.
She stopped in front of the keypad. “My code is six-zero-six-two, by the way.” Dinah looked back at him before keying it in. The door buzzed as the lock clunked out of the way and she let them in. “You won’t be able to get back in without it, unless you can sneak in behind someone.”
He nodded, noticing that her code was their parent’s birth years and that he could barely remember her using a keypad at the front entrance the day before. They rode the slow elevator up in silence as Dinah kept her head bent over her phone until they got off. She let them into the apartment and left the small suitcase near the kitchen as she headed down the short hallway to her room. Cal picked it up and headed through the kitchen to his pseudo room, putting the bags down under the wide window.
Fishing his black backpack out of the larger suitcase, Caleb sat down on the bed as he pulled together his things that he would need and packed it up. He was just zipping it closed as Dinah breezed into the room and held out a golden key on a thick, silver ring. “This is for the apartment. I gotta run, Cal. See you later tonight, yeah?”
“Yeah, see ya!” Caleb called out to her as she did not wait for a response and had rushed back to the door, which slammed shut a moment later.
He slung his backpack over his shoulder and headed to the door, which Dinah had left unlocked. He had to wiggle the key a little to get it to turn the loc
k and then to let it go again. He headed down the hall, glancing at the dial above the elevator, which showed that it was down on the fourth floor. He moved to the right and took the stairs down, skipping several steps at a time as he held onto the railing and practically flew downward. Living in this building would easily get aggravating with only one elevator, and a slow, old one at that. He wondered how often it inconvenienced Dinah and Erica. He could see his impatient sister dealing with it with much grace. He smirked at the thought of her fit over the elevator as he bulleted through the small main lobby.
The air was warm outside, several degrees warmer than when they had come home. He hoped his tight fitting jeans would not be too hot as he rounded the corner to walk to the bus stop. The prospect of seeing Rainer later made his heart race and his stomach hollow out with nerves, but it also propelled him forward, taking him across the crosswalk rather than turning to his bus stop for going to his school. He rushed up to the handful of people waiting for the eastbound bus across the bridge as it roared to a stop, doors creaking open loudly. He fished his bus card of his wallet and boarded, swiping the card through the reader.
Caleb sat down at the back, chest heaving as he realized what he was doing. He looked across the street down to the stop he should’ve gone to as the one he was on jerked forward and entered traffic. He was avoiding his school work and lying to his sister to go see a vampire. A vampire he thought was too gorgeous for words. A vampire, that he desperately hoped, wanted to get to know Caleb in some kind of romantic context. What had he done? This was not the sort of thing that he did. Impulsivity was Dinah’s game, not his. He shook his head at the thought of Lizzie’s reaction to all of this, or worse, his father’s
He slumped back into his seat, grabbing his arms and squeezing against the nerves that raged on inside of him. At each stop, he looked up, heart pounding as he debated getting off and heading back into Oldtown. But each time, he stayed, making the decision again and again to go see the vampire. He was worse than Dinah. This wasn’t impulsive. This was committed. His stomach reeled and he clutched at himself tighter, hoping to hold himself together or he might totally lose it. How could he do this? Before he could fight with his inner turmoil any further, the bus lurched to a stop down the street from the Oleander building. This was it. Get up and go or sit there and ride the bus back around the city.
He grabbed his backpack and pushed himself out of the seat with unexpectant force and crashed through the doors as they started to hiss closed, landing on the curb with both feet as if he had just done some spectacular gymnastic feat and landed the dismount perfectly. He stepped away from the bus as it speed back up, legs wobbling and stomach protesting. Caleb stood there paralyzed as people rushed past him on the sidewalk, still debating walking down to Rainer’s building or running away. He had come all this way, he told himself, he might as well see it through now. He took a deep breath and hurried down the sidewalk. The residential side of the Oleander was a smooth grey stone with gold rimmed, dark windows and doors to the large lobby beyond. Without pausing, he heaved the door open and stepped into the cool, air-conditioned lobby. It was all grey, white, and modern with accents of gold and silver sparkling and flashing in the low light.
A man in a crimson jacket being a long white desk on the wall opposite the doors stood up. “Good afternoon,” his voice was faintly accented, making Caleb look at him closer as he hesitantly took a step forward. He had a deep golden olive skin tone that made his ethnicity all the more ambiguous. Caleb did not know about accents or various countries to try to pin the man’s origin down, but he clearly wasn’t American. “How may I help you?” the man asked lowly, voice smooth and rich.
“Uh,” Caleb walked up to the desk, willing his legs to not give out or his voice to waver. “I was wondering, I mean, I am here to see Rainer.”
The man arched an eyebrow before asking, “Your name?”
“Caleb,” he answered looking around anxiously. “Bishop,” he added, “that’s, uh, my last name, I mean. Caleb Bishop.” He nodded to himself, stomach clenching angrily as the man kept his eyebrow arched but looked down at the computer that was surely hidden behind the high, white counter of the desk.
The man said nothing as he typed on his hidden keyboard. His eyes flicked back and forth as he read the screen, pursing his full lips before looking back up at Caleb. “You do not appear to be on any resident’s approved list of guests.”
“Oh,” Caleb’s eyes flicked toward the golden doors of the elevators as he answered. “I did not know I needed to be added to the list.”
“Hmm,” the man blinked slowly as he hummed to himself, “yes, it is our policy.” He folded his hands in front of him on the desk and narrowed his detached, dark eyes on Caleb. “Would you like to leave a note for the resident?”
“Uh, no,” Caleb hesitated, backing away from the desk, suddenly feeling monumentally stupid for thinking that he could just show up and visit Rainer. “Thank you, though,” his voice squeaked out as he turned and hurried out of the lobby, practically flying down to the corner.
It was probably best that he catch a bus back across the river to school. He turned the corner and looked down the alley to the entrance of a Sip of Life. It was definitely still closed. Even the ropes for the line were put away. He shook his head, feeling worse about his train of thought as he knew there was next to no chance that the night club would be open in the middle of the day. His stomach grumbled as he stopped walking, realizing that as his nerves subsided that he had not eaten yet. He had drank some orange juice that morning, but had told himself that he would eat after getting his stuff from the pastor’s. Only, he hadn’t. Maybe it was best to find something to eat while trying to decide what to do with the rest of his day. If he stayed on the island long enough, he could always try the club when it opened. He had plenty to work on to fill the time.
He pulled out his phone and searched for places to eat nearby. There were far too many options, but most were closed, only opening up later for dinner. There was a cafe a few blocks away that shockingly had five stars. He could get a little something and coffee while he chipped away at the work he had left before he could graduate. He started down the street as he read the reviews. It was apparently owned by a French half-Fae man and had been a local favorite of the neighborhood for nearly a decade. Much like the cafe he had met his sisters had the other day, the place seemed to offer items both magical and mundane. He wondered what the magical food items would be like, smiling to himself at the thought of his father’s reaction to something like a happiness inducing lemon square.
The cafe was on the corner of two streets with a wooden facade, which was painted a pale yellow. ‘Jacques’ patisserie’ was scrawled across the large front half-circle window on the doors in a spidery, gold painted design. As he walked inside, a little bell rang out and tall, gorgeous silver haired man appeared. “Bonjour! Welcome!” His voice rang out, deep and moderately accented with a seductive, almost gravelly quality to it. Caleb knew that the Fae were stunning creatures of supposed magic and beauty, but again, he had never seen any up close. He shook his head, realizing that the man was awaiting his response.
“Oh, thank you,” Caleb nodded, approaching the bakery case and register with a large awkward step. A quick glance around showed that the cafe had at least ten other people sitting down, sipping from coffees and nibbling on various treats. Some music floated through the air, mingling with the light chatter for the other patrons. Caleb looked down at the items in the bakery case before daring to look up at the man.
He had already guessed who the man was, but he was wearing a black name tag pinned to the white apron he was wearing, displaying his name in spidery silver lettering. Jacques, who was obviously the owner, had the tell-tale striking silver eyes of a High Fae, even though, as the reviews had told him, he was half-Fae. His hair was long and steely grey, pushed back from his smooth, flawless face that betrayed no trace of age. “You have never been here, no?” He asked Caleb, bre
aking the trance he had seemed to enter while looking him over.
Caleb shook his head, “No, I have not.”
“Well,” Jacques turned toward the menu hanging behind him that Caleb had failed to take in when glancing around the warm cafe. “What are you in the mood for? Something light? Hearty? Meat? No meet? Coffee? Sweets?” He grinned at him, adding, “A little bit of magic?”
“Um,” Caleb blanched, “I have never had anything with magic in it.” He laughed uncomfortably, looking away from the striking man. “I haven’t eaten yet today thought, so I was thinking of something light maybe. I am not sure what would be g-”
Jacques held up one long hand to stop his babbling, smiling slightly. “Ah, mon ami,” Jacques nodded, letting his arm fall, “je sais. I know just what you need.” He looked over the case and Caleb noticed just how tall Jacques was, easily craning over the case and pointing down to something. “Perhaps my recipe for traditional honey cakes? Very easy on the stomach. Light, refreshing, yet savory and filling. Very warm, mais oui?”
He peered at the round cakes Jacques was pointing one of his long, impeccably manicured fingers down at. “That sounds fantastic actually,” Caleb nodded, mouth watering instantaneously at the thought of the cakes.
“I think two will do,” Jacques nodded back to him in confirmation. “I would also recommend an almond biscuit latte? It would pair quite well,” he paused, “if coffee is agreeable to you.”
Caleb hummed for a second and then answered, “I will take your recommendation. You obviously know your stuff.” He laughed, hoping he didn’t sound awkward. “It all sounds delicious.”
Jacques grinned at Cal, revealing brilliant white, perfect straight teeth. “You are a smart man,” he laughed lightly.
