Pulse of Heroes (43 page)

“Where on earth did you find this?” Rachael
asked Michelle looking at the black pearls around her neck.
Michelle told her it was discounted at some store in the city, but
deep inside she was smitten with satisfaction. A punky song came on
over the speaker system outside and Samantha strained to hear it
over all the noise the girls were making. It was something about
the singer being in love with a girl who lived at the bottom of a
septic tank. When Sam realized it was in fact the song she thought
it was she grabbed Michelle’s hand and dragged her out of the
bathroom, hollering at the rest of them to follow her because she
wanted to dance, and not just by herself. The girls spilled out of
the ladies room and headed towards their dates, who by then were
clustered around the drink table. None of the guys looked very
comfortable and Elliot looked no different. While everyone else
headed to the dance floor Michelle asked Elliot what they had all
talked about, and Elliot told her that lucky for him the
conversation was about a sports team that Ando followed regularly,
so he was able to keep up. Michelle watched her friends dancing,
and Elliot asked her if she wanted to join in, even though he
dreaded the idea. When Michelle saw his pained expression she burst
out laughing.

“What? I’m serious,” he said, trying to keep
a straight face.

“I just can’t see you out there ‘getting
down’,” she gasped for air in-between her laughs.

“Whatever. You get enough drink in me… and
it’ll be a whole different story.” Michelle told him that he was
silly, and besides her dress was much too tight for that kind of
dancing. The song ended abruptly and a large group of sweaty
students descended on the refreshments. As Michelle and Elliot
fought their way out from in between them, they ended up
practically bumping face-to-face with Tim and his date. The word
‘awkward’ couldn’t have been better used to describe any other
situation. Michelle looked up at the handsomely dressed Tim and she
really did try her best to smile, but the corners of her mouth
wouldn’t budge. Tim was as much at a loss for words as she was, but
his eyes didn’t lie. He was upset with her and she knew it. Tim
looked at Michelle, then at Elliot and back to Michelle again. To
make things worse, his date, a girl Michelle recognized as one of
the girls from his Fort Bragg group, was clearly beginning to get
angry over the unmistakable tension. Elliot was not above bravado
and as much as he tried to subdue his territorial feelings over
Michelle, his chest filled with air and his jaw clenched ever so
slightly. Michelle felt his grip tightening around her fingers and
she knew that she had to defuse the tension at once.

“Hi Tim,” Michelle said as gently as
possible. She waited for him to reply accordingly, but Tim couldn’t
find his words and just kept looking at Michelle, his eyes filled
with disappointment.

“Well, I guess we’re not wanted here,” Tim’s
date said to Elliot, elbowing his arm to get some support. When
Elliot looked over at the girl her mouth dropped open. Michelle
looked at Elliot and she could see that his eyes had started
changing hues. She needed to extricate them both out of the
situation with the least amount of damage done.

“Michelle, this is Gabrielle,” Tim finally
said. Michelle looked at the girl, who by this time was so angry
that her cheeks had turned rosier than her blush.

“Hi,” Michelle said shyly, giving the girl a
genuine if not apologetic smile.

“Hi,” Gabrielle said back flatly. “Maybe you
two need to talk alone for a while?” she added, storming off in
anger. She shouted over her shoulder to Tim that she was going to
go get a drink and if he was still interested he could find her
later. Elliot wasn’t sure what he should do. He didn’t feel
threatened by Tim, and he knew that Michelle’s heart was clearly
his, but at the same time the idea of leaving her alone just so she
could talk to him didn’t sit right with him.

“Michelle, lets just go,” he said to her in a
neutral voice, never taking his eyes off Tim. Michelle’s eyes
begged for just a little space, so he took two steps backwards. Tim
respected the fact that Elliot didn’t act like some brut and try to
drag Michelle away, but at the same time he had known Michelle for
years and that had to count for something. His eyes softened. “Why
couldn’t you tell me?” he asked, shaking his head. “That’s all you
had to do.” Michelle felt awful because Tim was still and always
the perfect gentleman.

“I don’t know. What was I supposed to
say?”

“You could have told me that you were seeing
someone else. You know how I feel… why this way?” Michelle tried to
explain that things were complicated, but Tim cut her off.

“And here I thought we’ve known each other
long enough. Or maybe I just thought I knew you.”

“I didn’t mean to…” Michelle said, feeling
the corner of her mouth twitch.

“Lead me on? Well technically you didn’t, so
I guess you get a pass, Andrews.” Tim was right and Michelle knew
it. For weeks she had been avoiding this exact discussion.

“Tim, I care about you, but…” she began
honestly. But Elliot had heard enough. He took Michelle’s hand.

“Lets go dance,” he said, leading her
away.

“I’m sorry,” Michelle said one more time as
she turned to go.

“Yeah, me too,” were Tim’s last words. Elliot
was more than a little confused by the scene he had just witnessed.
He wasn’t used to such exchanges. In his experience, once a woman
was on the arms of one man, other men would either challenge him or
simply step away. But these were different times, where people were
encouraged to talk everything out. He also had to remind himself
that Michelle had her own past that did not include him, and he
needed to respect that.

The dance floor was pretty full and Michelle
and Elliot found an open spot just as the lights were lowered and a
slow tune came on. Michelle had yet to say anything to Elliot and
when he turned towards her, she just put her arms around him and
leaned her face against his shoulder. Elliot’s body was taut and
Michelle felt his arm muscles through the sleeves of his jacket.
Elliot had heard Michelle’s voice telling Tim that she cared about
him. The words repeated in his brain like a scratched up CD. Hadn’t
he suffered enough when it came to women? He didn’t like what he
was feeling right now. Why was he doing this to himself again?
Could he be in love with her already? He looked down at Michelle,
noticing the way her curls lay so perfectly against the black of
his suit. Michelle felt the weight of his thoughts and looked up to
meet his eyes. Their emotions were beginning to synchronize with
one another’s, a sign that their souls were intertwining.

Michelle felt dreadful for Tim, and hoped
that he wasn’t able to see her from wherever he was. She was also
learning for the first time what it felt like to have to give up
something dear to her in order to be with Elliot. Up until that
night, Michelle didn’t understand what love meant, not really. Love
meant sacrifice. It meant that if she were poor somewhere wearing
sackcloth, she wouldn’t care as long as Elliot was there too. Love
meant that if Elliot asked her to go with him somewhere far away,
she would sadly say goodbye to her parents and her friends and
leave to wherever he needed to go. It meant all those things and
more. Elliot finally asked her if she was ok, and Michelle nodded,
but didn’t smile. So he put his finger to the corner of Michelle’s
lips and lifted them to make it look as if she were smiling. That
did the trick, and she gave him a real smile back. “That was really
awful,” she told him. Elliot had the choice of shrugging off the
whole situation as championing over a mere human wasn’t anything
new to him, or he could help Michelle grow and sort things out. She
was neither the first nor the last person that had ever had to make
a decision that ended up hurting somebody else’s feelings. Michelle
was becoming a young woman, and he was there right by her side. In
this case he was at the heart of the painful lesson.

“I know,” he said softly engulfing her in his
arms and then whispered that he was glad he was the one she
chose.

After one dance Michelle was ready to leave
and Elliot was glad that it was her suggestion. They said their
goodbyes to her friends, and the couple welcomed the cool evening
air. Elliot loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top button of his
shirt. He had never understood the need for such uncomfortable
fashion, and always felt like there was a noose around his neck
whenever he was in a tie. The tower clock at the old library struck
its bells to announce that it was ten o’clock and Michelle was glad
that they had some time before she had to be home. Elliot knew that
there was a small sitting area outside the library’s main entrance.
He led Michelle across the street, telling her that he knew a
perfect spot. The cobblestone walkway had Michelle struggling in
her high heels, not only because they slid along the worn edges of
the stones, but because her feet were already painfully swollen.
“Just take them off,” Elliot said matter-of-factly.

“And get my feet and my dress dirty? You’re
crazy.”

“Then let’s go somewhere else,” Elliot said,
offering to carry her back to the car.

“All the way there?” she asked laughing.

“Yeah,” Elliot said as he lifted her off her
feet. But he only managed to walk a few yards before they heard the
sound of footsteps running up behind them. Someone called out
Elliot’s name, and he spun around with Michelle still in his arms.
Devin and Rion’s faces did nothing to hide the urgency of the
situation. Their eyes glowed like they were on fire, a most bizarre
scene. The last people that Elliot wanted to see that night were
his friends. He set Michelle back down onto her feet, never taking
his eyes off his friends while she embarrassedly straightened out
her dress and hair. Something was very wrong and Michelle turned to
Elliot searching for any clue as to what was happening, but he
shook his head in frustration. Rion, despite his own agitation,
couldn’t help but gaze at Michelle with awe, but she averted her
eyes and took a step backwards to align herself with Elliot more
closely.

“What?” Elliot asked, exhausted and irritated
as Ando sprinted across the street to stand with the rest of them.
The guys stood looking back and forth at each other and then at
Michelle, who began feeling a sense of dread creeping up her
throat. Eventually, Ando took charge of the situation and told
Michelle that something urgent had come up and that they needed to
talk to Elliot, alone.

“Ando will explain things to you later,” Rion
said without looking at her. Something felt very wrong and Michelle
tightened her grip around Elliot’s fingers.

“Just tell me,” Elliot demanded shortly. Rion
began speaking to him in a strange harsh sounding language, his
voice rising and falling to match his story. It was obvious that he
was angry, and every once in a while he looked at Michelle, but she
couldn’t read his eyes when they glowed like that. Elliot responded
back in the same language, and Michelle was surprised at how much
deeper his voice sounded. There was intensity in the way he
annunciated each syllable and vowel. Devin pulled out a bundle of
white fabric from inside his jacket and tossed it over to Elliot
who caught it midair in one hand. Elliot rubbed his fingers across
the fabric, and Michelle felt each and every one of his muscles
tense up right behind her. He let go of her hand and unrolled the
bundle to reveal a spatter of dark stains across it. His eyes began
glowing just like the rest of his friends.

“Elliot, what’s happening? What’s going on?”
she whispered over her shoulder to him. Elliot said something else
in that strange language and then led her away from his friends.
Michelle looked back at them hoping to see them leaving, but when
they just stood there and avoided her gaze she became frightened.
Elliot stopped in front of the stairs leading up to the clock tower
and sat down on the bottom step.

“Sit down,” he said. Michelle sat on the cold
step dreading whatever it was that he had to tell her. Had she done
something bad? Were they in some kind of terrible trouble? There
was sadness written all over Elliot’s face. He looked in her eyes,
then at her hair, then at her quivering lips.

“What is it?” she practically screamed,
unable to take not knowing anymore. Elliot swallowed hard. That he
would be forced to say these next words tonight of all nights was
something that he had never imagined. What bad fortune he thought,
looking at the night sky. Where was the damn moon?

“Michelle… this is really hard for me to say,
because I don’t want it to be true. I… I actually can’t believe it,
but I have to. I’m left with no choice.” He swallowed again and
took Michelle’s hand. “I have to leave.”

“For how long?” Michelle asked, trying to
maintain her composure.

“I don’t know,” Elliot said solemnly.

“What do you mean? Where are you going?” she
asked, her pitch rising higher. She tried to calm herself down.
After all, she loves him and he loves her. She’ll just go with him.
She didn’t care where.

“Remember my friends in China?” he asked.

“Yes,” she answered, her voice sounding more
hesitant.

“They’re dead. Murdered, to be precise.”

Michelle looked at Elliot with sympathy and
apologized. He smiled when she asked him if she could do something
to help him. He so wished that he could just up and disappear with
her, somewhere where they would never be found, but he knew
better.

“Actually, they were murdered with my own
sword. Someone cut their heads off and dumped their bodies back at
their house like they were nothing. Garbage!” It was Michelle’s
turn to swallow hard. She felt the world around her starting to
spin. She didn’t understand how and why, and wondered what sword he
was talking about. And how did he know that his sword was used to
murder his friends? Elliot held up the woven fabric that Devin had
tossed over to him.