Chapter 109
It all seemed a little odd to me. “Wait. Isn’t Eliza in California?” I asked. “Is that why you’re acting so weird?”
“I’m not acting weird,” he protested. “Why would you say that?”
“Something’s not right,” I replied. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. “Is Cadence in some sort of trouble or something?”
“No, everyone is fine.” He shook his head at me like he thought I was overreacting. “I just… we’re working with some people, some shifty people, some people I don’t trust, and I just wanted to stop by and let you know, in case you heard anything, what was going on, that’s all.”
My forehead was so wrinkled, I likely looked like a Shar-Pei. “Elliott, no one tells me anything except for you. Why would you bother to stop by and tell me this if it’s not a big deal?”
He held my gaze for a long moment before he shrugged. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “I just… felt like I needed to stop by and see you, tell you we’re going out there, and tell you I hope you have a great time at camp.”
I crossed my arms and leaned back against the couch. “Okay,” I said slowly. “And…?”
He exhaled loudly. “Look, I wanted you to know I think you’ve handled all this secrecy like a champ. Not a lot of kids your age would’ve been mature enough to handle all of this. And if your sister finds out that I told you stuff, you need to deny it, okay? All it will do is make her upset, and there’s no need for that.”
“How would she?” I asked. “Why would I tell her? When will I even see her?”
“Well, I think she might be heading back to headquarters permanently, so you ought to be seeing a lot more of her.”
That surprised me. “She hasn’t said anything at all about that to me.”
“I don’t think she knows it yet.”
Confusion washed over me. “Say what?”
“I think that, by the time this is all said and done, she’ll be back together with Aaron and she’ll be back in KC where she belongs.”
“She was just telling me about some other guy….”
“Cale?”
“Yeah.”
He shook his head. “It’ll never last.”
“Why not?” I was looking at him out of the corner of my eye now.
“Because—she’s supposed to be with Aaron. I feel it. In my bones.”
“You should tell your old man bones they picked the wrong guy,” I teased, refolding my arms.
“Hardy har har,” he replied. He shook his head at me again, but this time he stood up and walked over to the sofa, sinking down beside me. “Listen, Cass, just trust me on this one, okay? I know you’re angry at him, but you can let it go. You’re not mad at Liam anymore, are you?”
“Liam is a boy child, a sad one at that. Aaron is a full-grown man who decided to do something awful to my sister,” I argued, pivoting around to face him.
“Aaron was tricked by a siren. You do know what that is, right? And he saw a falsified video of your sister that was misleading.”
This was the first I’d heard of this last bit of information. I wanted to ask for more information, but he cut me off. “Just do me a solid here, okay? If they end up back together, just understand that that’s what’s best for them, for all of us. Okay?”
He sounded so weird. Like Cadence and Aaron were going to be back together soon, but he wouldn’t be around to see it. “Elliott, what are you not telling me?” I asked, hearing a slight waver in my own voice.
“Nothing, I just wanted to make sure you understand that, okay?”
“Fine,” I said, still staring at him.
“All right. I’m sure Lucy will be here soon.”
I checked the clock on the wall since my phone was upstairs. If she didn’t get to my house in about five minutes we’d be late for our first fake deadline. “I’m not allowed to take my phone with me,” I said, “so I’ll have to call you when I get home.”
“That’s cool.” He nodded and gave me a sort-of sad half-smile. I couldn’t imagine he’d be that upset at not talking to me for a few days, so I chalked this behavior up to also strange and related to whatever else was going on.
“You’ll tell me all about whatever’s going on in California when I get back, right?” I asked, giving him a pointed stare.
“Of course,” he replied. “Every little detail.”
I heard Lucy’s car pull up outside and hoped he hadn’t parked in the potential path of destruction. “That’s Luce. I’m sure she’ll want to say hi to you.”
“Cool,” he replied. I started to stand, but he put his hand on my arm. “Cass,” he said, and the seriousness in his voice intensified tenfold. “You are going to be an amazing Hunter someday. I just want you to know that, okay?”
“Thanks,” I said. “I’m sure you’ll be there to train me every step of the way.”
His smile was forced. “I’m sure I will be.”
I didn’t let my mind wander away from me; he was saying odd things, acting strange, but I didn’t let myself go down the path of possibilities too far. There’d been enough craziness in my life over the last six months to read too much into this. I stood and walked to the door as Lucy knocked, and I opened it. She came in and saw Elliott and flew over and hugged him as I grabbed my bags and shouted for my mom.
“Now you be careful,” my mom warned, hugging me. “Call when you can.”
There was a phone in the dormitory we were allowed to use once a day to call home. “I will,” I assured her.
“Drive safe, Lucy,” my mom said, hugging her, too.
“She’s just driving me to the school,” I reminded her.
“Well you never know,” Mom said in that I’m-your-mother voice.
Elliott took my bags and walked out with us. He didn’t say goodbye to my mom, so I wondered if that meant he was going back in. He tossed them in the back with Lucy’s and hugged her one more time, telling her to behave.
“I’ll see you when I get back,” I said, stretching up on tiptoe to wrap my arms around him.
“Yeah you will,” he replied. His voice sounded surer this time, and I thought I had just imagined there was anything fishy going on before. “Be careful, lil girl. Don’t let them drop you on your head again.”
“I won’t.” I was not planning on flying ever again if I could help it. I was permanently afraid of heights after that basketball game when Elliott saved me from making a personal connection with the floor. He stepped back, and I took a deep breath before I opened my mouth again. “Look, this might sound super weird, but I never really got a chance to tell Jack how important he was to me, how I’d thought of him as a big brother for all those years. And well, I’m headed off to camp now, and you’ve got to go all the way to California, so....” I realized I was rambling. I glanced in the car window and saw Lucy patiently waiting for me, but I knew we needed to go. “I’ll just say it. Thanks, Elliott, for being there for me. I really appreciate it. You have been like a big brother to me, too. More than that, you’ve been like a superhero who's always there for me. I really appreciate you.” He was smiling at me proudly, the way my dad looked at me when I showed him my all-A report card for the first time. “So… I love you. Like a brother. You’re awesome.”
“Thanks, Cass,” he said, swallowing hard, and I thought maybe I saw tears glistening in his eyes. “I love you, too. Like a sister. Like a little sister.”
“Well, okay then,” I said, feeling heat in my cheeks. “I’ve gotta go.”
“Take care, lil girl.”
“You, too.” I gave him one last smile and then climbed into Lucy’s car. He stood on the sidewalk and watched us pull away, and I turned and waved at him one more time, not realizing that would be our last goodbye.
