The Heart's Ashes (5 page)

I glared at
her with absolutely no tolerance for all her bouncing. If I could
borrow even ten percent of her spirit, I’d be a completely
different person.

“
So what time is dinner tonight?”

“
Eight o’clock.”

“
Oh, crud—I didn’t get Spence a birthday present.” I dropped
my head into my hands. I’m so forgetful lately.

“
That’s okay. You can just gift him with your
presence.”

“
Ha-ha.” I rolled my eyes and looked at my watch. Looks like
I’m gonna be late for work again.

The jingle of
the doorbell announced my tardiness. Geoff doused his cigarette and
waved the smoke around—as if that would rid the store of his
stench—then dramatically extended his hand and lifted his sleeve to
look at his watch. “Late again.”

“
Sorry, Geoff.” I quietly closed the door behind me. “I’m not
sure how time’s escaping from me lately.” I stood in front of him
and pinched the edges of my pleated skirt. “I know that’s no excuse
and I’m really sorry, I—”

“
You know, if I tell my dad...” his tone rose in suggestion,
making me more mad than concerned.

“
Well, what if I tell him you smoke in the store
and—”

“
Student’s waiting for you.” He turned away and stalked off
into the staff room behind the counter, which is where he’d stay
for the remainder of the day. And despite the fact that I was
supposed to be teaching, he still made me answer the phones, take
stock, and inform customers about instruments I’d never even heard
of. Jerk.

The small
frosted window on the classroom door, with stickers that read “Less
n in pro ess” made me hate myself even more. I sighed and stood a
little taller, pushing the door open. The show must go on. This
only temporary.

“
Joseph.” The fake smile slipped away. “I forgot we had a
lesson today.”

“
Wouldn’t miss a lesson with you, gorgeous.” The greying,
eighty-year-old student slapped my behind with his shaky
hands.

“
No, sir, wouldn’t dream of it, would we?” I cringed as I
closed the door.

The thin heel
of my shoe clacked the pavement noisily until restaurant chatter
spilled into the silence of the desolate street. I ran to a small
booth at the centre of the room, waving off the hostess’ offer of
assistance, and placed the small wrapped box on the table.

“
Sorry I’m late, guys.”

“
Oh, hey.” Emily’s concerned face instantly relaxed. “We were
wondering if you were going to show.”

“
I said I would.” I shrugged and slid into the booth seat
opposite them. “I just got caught up at work. Boss wanted a
heart-to-heart.”

“
What about?” Emily asked.

“
Hey, thanks, Ara.” Spencer cut in, holding up the watch I
bought on the way over here. Truth is, the heart-to-heart only took
fifteen minutes—the rest of the time was spent shopping for
Spencer’s present. Okay, so maybe I spent too long choosing a dress
to wear too, but it’s not often I go out with friends anymore—and
I’ve never been on a real date.

“
Um, it was about a promotion,” I said, then looked at
Spencer. “So you like it then?”

He wrapped the
watch over his wrist and nodded. “Yeah, it’s great.”

“
Cool.” I smiled and looked at the menu, wondering where my
blind date was.

“
So, Ara?” Emily held a glass in the air. “Here’s to Spence
and his nineteenth birthday—and here’s to our one year anniversary
of being friends.”

Wow. She’s
right. It’s a year to the day I met Emily, a year to the day I
started a new school, and a year to the day that I met Da— “Well,
salute.” I clinked my glass with theirs, but fought to fake
happiness.

“
So, where’s your friend, Spence?” Emily asked.

“
Oh, Eric? He’s always late.” He leaned back in the chair and
laughed. “Probably can’t stop his knees from shaking long enough to
get dressed.”

Shaking
? “Does he have a condition
or something?” I asked.

“
If you call the fear of girls a condition, yeah.”

“
What did you tell him he was coming out to meet with? The
queen?” Emily shook her head.

“
No, I told him she’s very pretty and very nice.” Spence
lowered his gaze.

“
Aw, how sweet,” I said mockingly.

Something
changed then—drained the warmth, the sound and the life out of the
small restaurant; an eerie feeling came over me, like that tingling
sensation when you know there’s something standing behind you. I
looked over my shoulder—not for any reason, purely because I felt
the need to check behind me—and jumped when Spence suddenly hopped
up in his seat and waved. “Eric! Over here!”

When the tall,
light-haired guy by the door smiled at us, I sank into my seat
straight away. Em was right; he is like David. Not as much as the
last time I mistook someone for him, but enough, with his
overly-confident smile, that my heart fluttered. There was
something else about this guy, though, something underneath the
instant attraction that was off-putting.

My skin
crawled with goose bumps as he stood in front of me and extended
his hand. “Hi, I’m Eric. Nice to meet you.”

Shake his
hand, Ara—just move yours into his. They’re all looking at you. My
rigid arm obeyed, and when our fingers touched, the coolness of his
skin sent tingles down my elbow. “Hi,” I managed to whisper.

“
I’m uh, I’m sorry I’m late,” he said slowly, without taking
his chocolate eyes off me. Then, he turned his head to Spence and
smiled as the moment of intensity slipped away and the room flooded
with volume again. “I had to stop for a bite to eat.”

“
But, you were coming to a restaurant.” Emily toyed with her
bracelet as she spoke—extra enthusiastically.

“
Uh, yeah.” He grinned and fell into the seat beside me with
way too much confidence for the kind of guy Spence described. “Low
blood sugar.”

“
Oh, well, you should get on well with Ara then,” Emily said.
“She’s the same.”

Eric looked at
me quickly, studying me with narrowed eyes.

“
Thanks, Em.” I groaned. Way to make me feel
normal.

“
Low blood sugar, too, huh?” Eric said, leaning a little
closer.

“
That’s what they tell me.” I straightened my napkin on my lap
and tensed from the toes up, wishing I could stop my heart from
beating. The guy smelled like leather and grease, but there was a
fresh layer of spicy cologne over it that made him smell warm and
manly—like I always thought guys would smell.

“
Did you eat before you came, too, then?” Eric
asked.

“
No,” was all I said, unable to think of anything more
intelligent.

Eric sat back
a little and forced a smile away from his lips, but it stayed there
in his eyes. I noticed then, as I took a good look at him, that his
hair wasn’t short, like I first thought. It was undercut on the
sides, with the top tied into a short ponytail at the back. I never
liked that look, but on this guy, it actually looked pretty
sexy.

I cleared my
throat and carefully considered wiping the imaginary drool off my
face. “So...Eric,” I started, “how do you and Spence know each
other?”

“
We, uh—” Eric grinned and looked at Spence. “We train at the
same gym.”

“
Yeah, this guy’s unbeatable in the ring,” Spence said,
laughing.

“
The ring?” I shifted in my chair, inching away from Eric and
his slyly invading proximity.

“
Yeah.” Eric turned to me. “Boxing.”

“
Oh, cool.” I looked at Eric’s upper-arm just under his black
fitted t-shirt. Nice arms. Melt.

“
Do you like boxing?” he asked.

“
Ha!” Emily and I both laughed.

“
I’ll go ahead and take that as a no.”

“
Sorry. Sports aren’t my thing. Aside from
running.”

“
Well, boxing’s fun. Maybe I could teach you a few moves
sometime?” He sank back a little and a soft, almost shy half-smile
masked the confidence in his eyes. “...If you want.”

I nodded.
“Maybe.”

“
So, what do you do for a living, Eric?” Emily asked, leaning
on her elbow.

He flipped his
chin toward the waitress and waved her over with his hand, then
looked at Emily. “I work in a bike shop by day, and at night, play
in a band.”

“
No way!” Emily’s eyes widened. “That’s so cool. What
instrument do you play?”

“
Uh—” Eric smiled widely, looking sideways at me. “I’m the
lead-singer-slash-guitarist.”

Okay, this
just got more interesting. “What sort of music do you play?” I
asked.

“
Mostly?” He placed the wine glass the waitress handed him on
the table and shifted in the chair so he fully faced me. “We play
covers. Um, a bit of rock, love the alternative stuff like Muse,
Thirty Seconds to Mars...”

“
Oh, that’s good,” Emily jumped in, “Ara loves that
stuff.”

Eric looked at
me and smiled. “Well, maybe you should come watch us one
night.”

“
Maybe.” I washed my grin down with a sip of cola.

“
Maybe?” Eric’s smile faded. “Don’t you like live
music?”

“
Are you kidding,” Emily said as I took a breath. “She’s a
pianist. She
loves
music.”

“
A pianist, hey?” Eric asked with a leading edge to his
tone.

“
Yeah. I’m teaching music right now, but eventually, when I
get a piano, I wanna make a demo of my songs.”

“
Well—” Eric nodded softly, “—I’d really like to hear them
sometime.”

My shoulders
lifted around my ears slightly and I reached for my drink again.
Something about Eric was incredibly unsettling. He was so pleasant
and easy going that he made me want to get to know him, tell him
all my secrets, and yet, run away at the same time.

When the
waiter placed our food on the table, Eric slid mine across to me,
keeping his eyes on my face for a second too long. I quickly
grabbed the salt that I had no intention of using and bit my teeth
together when Emily and Spence exchanged those annoying
we-know-what-she’s-thinking-glances. They don’t know anything. He’s
nice, but dinner is as far as nice will go. I mean, sure, I like
him, even though I only just met him, but he’s a guy, which means
I’ll only hurt him.

“
So, do you have any family, Ara?” Eric asked.

“
Doesn’t everyone?”

“
No.” He left his food untouched, focusing on our conversation
completely.

“
Ur, well, yes, I do.” I looked at Emily.

“
And you live alone?” Eric asked.

“
I live with Emily.”

Eric looked at
Emily, then, seeming to remember we weren’t alone, took a sip from
his wine glass.

“
Why do you ask?”

He let a
breath out in a laugh and shook his head as he sipped his wine
again. “No reason.”

The shudder
that smile created in me was not met with the kind of caution it
should have been; I merely brushed my common-sense mind aside and
let my knee fall against his. He smiled down, then dropped his hand
under the table and rested it on my leg. I didn’t move for the rest
of the night, and added very little to the dinner banter.

“
Well.” Emily stood up and shuffled out of the booth. “Must go
to the little girl’s room.”

“
Ur, yeah.” Spence looked at Emily. “Me too.”

“
Uh, I’ll come with you.” I went to stand, but Emily spun back
around and barred me, under no uncertain terms, with a wide-eyed
stare of warning.

While I stood,
feeling like an idiot, I could see Eric’s glare fall all over the
curves of my waist and my shoulder blades. I sat back down and
leaned on my hand, keeping my eyes forward, but could still see
Eric’s grin.

God, he’s so
cute and he knows it. I just want to crawl under the table and bite
my nails.

“
You know—” he shuffled closer, “—you
can
talk to me. I promise I won’t
bite.”

As his arm
touched mine and the cool yet warm sensation—like play-doh warmed
in the palm of your hand—started my heart, I froze and held my
breath. I knew that feeling too well. Mix it with the eerie,
skin-crawling tingle and... I stole a sideways glance at his
forearm; his veins, they were clear! My eyes widened as I turned
fully to make sure I saw it properly.

He followed my
gaze, then looked back at my face with a tight pull across his
brow. “No one’s...ever noticed that before.”

A small smile
lifted my cheeks. He’s a vampire! “You might say I have previous
experience.”

He glanced at
my arm then; I shook my head. A silent exchange was occurring
between us. I was sure he couldn’t read minds, but we both knew
exactly what the other was implying. I rolled my neck to the side,
prompted by his obvious confusion, and tilted my scarf.

His eyes
widened slightly. “Do Spence and Em know?”

My head moved
to say no as he softly ran his fingertip over the scar—the one
Jason left. I covered it again. “They know about the scar, but not
exactly what caused it.”