The Pull of Destiny (80 page)

I glowed at his
words, beaming up at him as he continued. “We’ve got a lot of catching up to
do.”

“Sure, I would
love to visit you this summer,” I said, glancing at Aunt Kelly for confirmation
that this was what she wanted. She smiled at me, but I noticed that her smile
didn’t quite reach her eyes.

Not good.
Not good at all.

***

My first day
back at school was drama filled, to say the least. Robyn and Shazia were my
bodyguards, shielding me from inquisitive glances and ‘what the hell happened
to your face’ questions.
Dalton students aren’t known for their subtlety.
Concealer helped, but I still looked like I’d come off worse in a boxing match.
Still, it was nice to be back at school, pretending that I had a normal life.
Luke was still in a coma. Dr. Khan didn’t know what to tell Mr. Astor, who had
taken to walking around the hospital with a bewildered look on his face. At
least school would keep my mind off of Luke for a while.

“It’ll die
down,” Robyn predicted, glaring at a couple of nosy freshmen who scuttled off
as soon as they met eyes with her.

Shazia nodded,
her arm linked into mine. “Most of them are talking about Luke, too. I guess
everybody wonders what's up.”

I shot a covert
glance at Robyn as Shazia said this. When she had heard about Luke's aneurysm,
she had demanded to know how long I had known about it and why I hadn’t told
her.

Like that
isn’t obvious, Miss Loudmouth.

Shazia
understood better than Robyn about how people needed some things to be kept
secret. I loved Robyn, but when she got her hands on juicy gossip, she didn’t
rest until everyone in her vicinity knew about it. Somehow, I don’t think Luke
would have appreciated having his business spread around the entire school,
which was undoubtedly what would have happened if Robyn had gotten her hands on
the scoop.

She had clearly
forgiven me and was relishing being in the know while other students had to
rely on hearsay to figure out what had happened to Luke.

As we walked
out of History class, the unexpected happened. Wendy, Ahmed and Joanna swarmed
around me. Robyn’s eyes widened in surprise, and expression that I knew was
mirrored on my own face. The sneer on Wendy’s face made it clear that I
probably wasn’t about to enjoy what was going to happen.

Joanna spoke
first. “We need to talk,” she said in a demanding voice, running a hand through
her black hair.

“I have nothing
to say to you,” I replied mulishly. Just because all of the popular girls
jumped when Joanna snapped her fingers didn’t mean that
I
was going to
do it. I didn’t need to obey her every command like a drone!

Rolling her
eyes, Wendy snapped, “Well, we have something to say to
you
.”

Leaning in, his
brown eyes concerned, Ahmed asked, “What happened with Luke?”

Involuntarily,
my eyebrows rose.
Well, well, well. Fancy this
. Ahmed’s face actually
knew how to process complex emotions!
What do you know about that?
I
glanced at Shazia, who was gazing at the floor, her cheeks tinged with pink.
She
hasn’t told Ahmed about Luke
. I wasn’t surprised; Shazia was one of the
best secret keepers I knew.

“What?” I put
my hands on my hips, staring defiantly from Wendy, Ahmed to Joanna. Anger
engulfed my body.
Their concern is too little, too late.
“All of a
sudden you care about Luke?” I asked incredulously.

Ahmed pressed
his lips together. “What's that supposed to mean? Of course we care, we’re his
friends!”

A hit dog
will holler.
You see that, ladies and gentlemen? That’s called defensiveness. Ahmed knew
full well what I was getting at.

“Oh, really?” I
cocked my head to the side. “That’s funny; I thought you all ditched him when
he chose financial aid girl over you rich posers?”

Beside me,
Robyn sucked in a sharp breath at my bravado, her eyes darting from one face to
another, taking snapshots with her mental camera.

Joanna tossed
her head. “Enough with the sarcasm,” she said disdainfully. “Just tell us what
happened.”

“You’re
supposed to be his friends! Shouldn’t I be asking
you
what happened?” I
was mad enough to lose my cool, my eyes flashing. What poor excuses for friends
this trio was.
Poor, poor Luke.
He deserved so much better. “If anything
happened to
me
, Shazia and Robyn would be the first to find out because
they’re my best friends and they’re real as it gets! But you guys-.”

I snorted
derisively, shaking my head in astonishment.

“We
are
his friends!” Wendy exclaimed vehemently. “Why do you keep saying that?”

She sounded
like a wounded puppy, like I was the one who was picking on her!
How did
they turn into the victims here?
Weren’t they the ones who told him it was
supposed to be ‘bro’s before hoes’? And now they were playing innocent?
Puh-leez.

“If you truly
are his friends, where were you when he had those terrible headaches? Did you
even notice that he kept popping pain medication or were you all wrapped up in
your own little useless soap opera lives?” They stared at me sulkily as I
turned on them, not wanting to believe what I was saying, even though they knew
every word I said was true. “Where were you right before he was taken into
surgery and when he came out? Where the
hell
were you ‘friends’
throughout this whole ordeal?” My chest heaved with anger. “You call yourselves
friends? I would
hate
to be your friends. You’re all selfish, arrogant
people. Fake friends are what
you
are.”

And with that,
I stomped off, my back rigid with fury as I left the trio in shocked silence.
Shazia and Robyn traipsed behind me. I could feel their eyes on me, even as
Shazia cleared her throat. “Damn, Celsi. You went off!”

Her voice was
tinged with admiration, but I didn’t admire myself for what I’d said. My hands
were clammy and shaking with delayed reaction. “They deserved to hear it.”

“I’ll say,”
Robyn chimed in. “With friends like those...”

Luke's Point
of View

I woke up in a bed that
was unquestionably
not
mine. The sheets were scratchy, the air smelled
weird and I was definitely
not
in my room. Groggily, I fought to open my
eyes, groaning as the light hit them. My mouth was dry as hell, but water
wasn’t my first priority. Nope, first order of business was finding out where
the hell I was.

“Luke?” a quiet voice said
a couple of feet away. “Luke, can you hear me?”

Straining against the
light, I turned my face in the direction of the voice, wincing as my head
started pounding.

Oww....

I squinted at the dim
figure standing in what seemed to be a hospital room. Yeah, that would explain
the scratchy sheets and the faint medicinal smell in the air. My neck felt
stiff and I tried to think back, tried to remember how I got here. But
everything was a blur. The figure hovering at the end of my bed came closer and
I realised that it was a woman. Long dark hair, ivory skin, deep green eyes
almost exactly like mine...

A sharp breath fell from
my lips as I found myself blearily staring at a face from my past. This wasn’t
happening. Was it? Or was it just a cruel dream?

“Luke,” she whispered, her
eyes, so much like mine, exactly the same shade of green as mine, overflowing
with tears as her mouth worked with emotion. I could feel my eyes getting wet
too as I looked at her, my head and heart thumping in unison. This was it. The
moment I had unconsciously been waiting for ever since she had been made to
give me up and leave under my father’s duress. And now, through some miracle I
had yet to fathom, she was standing right in front of me. My mother was finally
by my side.

I swallowed hard, the
tears in my eyes blurring my view of her face. But I didn’t have the energy to
wipe them away, couldn’t even try. Besides, my arm was connected to one of
those IV’s. The fact that I had a needle in my arm would have freaked me out
any other occasion, but this was hardly an ordinary event. Even though I
couldn’t see her properly (now that my eyes had adjusted, I realised that the
lighting in the room was super dim) I knew exactly who she was. Opening my
mouth, my voice cracked as I said, “Mom?”

CHAPTER 33

a change is
gonna come.

Luke's Point
of View.

“I’m sorry.”

Those were the
first words CiCi uttered when she stepped tentatively into the NICU ward I was
laid up in. Dr. Khan said I would be under close observation in the NICU for a
couple more days before I could be moved to a private room on the neurogical
floor. Personally, I was looking forward to that. I still felt weak as hell and
even though my vision was incredibly blurry and I couldn’t remember
a lot
of things, I really just wanted to lie down in a bed that didn’t have curtains
around it.

My heart
started thumping loudly as I propped myself up in bed, gazing at CiCi for the
first time since I had woken up. She hovered by the door, wringing her hands
and staring at me with those big hazel eyes of hers like she was scared to come
any closer. Well, I know I had lost
some
weight (being fed through a
tube will do that to ya) and I probably looked like shit warmed over, but I
wasn’t too sure
why
CiCi was still standing by the door. Quick getaway,
maybe? In case I wanted to fling my bedroom slippers (courtesy of Faith who
would make an excellent nurse) at her?

And why was she
sorry, anyway?

Grunting at the
sudden pain shooting through my head as I opened my mouth to talk, (go figure)
I said, “Don’t, CiCi. Please don’t apologize for anything. Just- come closer.
Please.”

Her lips
quivering, CiCi moved closer to me, infusing the air around us with the clean
scent of her strawberry shampoo as she sat down in the chair by my bed, her
eyes glued on my face. “I missed your voice so much, Luke,” she whispered, a
tremor in her voice. I reached out to take her hand in mine, squeezing softly
as tears rolled down her cheeks. Damn, how did I always manage to make the girl
I loved cry? Wiping her cheeks, she continued bravely. “It was so horrible, not
knowing what was happening.”

“I’m here now,
CiCi,” I murmured, running my thumb over her knuckles as she tried to regain
her composure, the adoring look in her teary eyes making my heart skip a couple
of beats. “It’s okay.”

She shook her
head, her curls flying around her face. “No, it’s not okay! I kept wondering
what would happen if you- if you didn’t come back...” Her voice trailed off and
she sighed, the sound tugging at my heartstrings.

“You don’t have
to, not anymore,” I replied simply, gazing at her beautiful face and wondering
if my eyesight was really as screwed up as I thought it was, because were those
bruises
on CiCi’s chin? Breathing through my nose to calm myself before
I went off the handle, raging about something that potentially wasn’t there,
(not exaggerating, I could barely see, my vision was so blurry) I continued.
Reaching up, I gently caressed CiCi’s cheek. She flinched for a spit second
(force of habit, I guess) before relaxing into my touch. “I didn’t mean to hurt
you. I love you.”

Her whole face
glowing with happiness, CiCi whispered, “I love you too.”

And shit, she
really
did
have bruises on her face. Multiple bruises. I squinted,
honing in on the fading but visible marks as my hand tightened around hers. Nate.
He’d done this to her. I felt sick to my stomach as I stared.

Before I could
ask what had happened, what she had done to Nate to warrant such vicious
payback, a nurse came bustling in, signifying that our all too short visit was
over.

“I’m sure that
you’ve had fun catching up, but it’s time for you to leave, miss. Mr. Astor
needs his rest,” the nurse told CiCi as she fiddled with the various machines I
was still hooked up to. I felt like a computer with all these wires plugged
into me.

“I’ll come back
tomorrow, Luke,” CiCi said quietly, standing up. She frowned slightly as she
intercepted my pure ‘WTF’ expression from seeing her face clearly in the light.
Okay, what was Nate
on?
Why did he hate his cousin so much that he had
resorted to making her his own personal punching bag? Dude needed to get over
his anger about Rhea and join a boxing class to get rid of his aggression!

I sank back
against the pillows as the nurse skillfully injected something in my arm. And I
didn’t even wince as the needle went in. Well, maybe that only happened because
I was caught up in watching CiCi leave the NICU and I only noticed that she was
injecting me after she pulled the hypodermic out. Those bruises, though...