Chapter 277
There was nothing remotely good about that night, not for me anyway. I lay awake in my bed staring at the ceiling for hours, until the sun was completely up, and I thought I should go ahead and start getting ready for training. But around 7:00, Aurora messaged all of us that she’d postponed training until the afternoon since everyone was still exhausted. And most of the Guardians were still up looking at Xs and pondering anomalies.
I tucked my arm under my chin and tried to go to sleep, but I kept thinking about Mina and Bonnie. That poor little girl was over there across campus now, missing her mother. I hoped Mina was somewhere in a better place, but I had no idea how that worked for Vampires, and my weary mind couldn’t make sense of religion for the undead.
At 8:00, I hauled myself out of bed. I might’ve dozed off for a few minutes, but I’d basically gotten no sleep. I had some schoolwork to do that I thought I could manage on a cup of coffee or two, but I decided to take a shower to see if that helped me wake up. While it was a slight improvement, I knew it was going to be a long day.
I hadn’t really thought about Brandon much the entire time I’d been tossing and turning. It wasn’t until I grabbed the bottle of perfume he’d given me a few weeks ago off of the counter that I let my mind wander there. I was sure he probably hadn’t slept last night either. He was probably asking himself what he’d done. And I still didn’t have an easy answer for that. He hadn’t even touched Mina. But he’d been there, been part of it. What did I expect him to do? Try to talk Aaron out of it? Threaten to quit the team if they didn’t let her go? Of course not. Yet, I was still mad at him—and Aaron. And Christian and Shane, even though Shane wasn’t even in the RV. I had somehow managed to forgive Jamie completely, and my anger at Elliott had dissipate to a small fizzle. None of it was logical, but then, I wasn’t exactly being rational.
I made myself some coffee with lots and lots of sugar and cream in it. I am not a big coffee drinker, but I knew I needed it to get through the day. My bagel had just popped out of the toaster when Jamie sent me a message: “So… you wanna get this over with before Sis changes her mind?”
It took me a second to figure out what he was talking about, but then I remembered that Cadence had reluctantly given her consent to letting him take the tissue samples the night before. I thought she would’ve already gone to him and told him no way, but now at least I had something to be slightly excited about. “Yeah,” I replied quickly, smearing way too much strawberry cream cheese on my bagel. “What time?”
“Does 1:00 work for you?” he asked.
“Sure.” Aurora had pushed training back to 6:00, so after a few hours of homework, I should be good. “See you then. Thanks, Jamie!”
“I’ll sharpen my knife,” he replied, and then sent a GIF of a crazy looking doctor sharpening a butcher knife on a whetstone. Since I knew he was just joking it didn’t intimidate me at all, but I thought if my sister saw that, she’d die. So I sent him a homemade GIF of Cadence screaming I’d made a few weeks ago when she was particularly angry about something, and he replied with a GIF of Morgan Freeman clapping. This could go on all day, and I had work to do, but he’d already made me feel so much better.
I took my breakfast into my room and ate it at my desk while I got my laptop open. I saw that I had two new assignments. One of them was in pre-AP algebra, and I immediately thought about Brandon. I was so rude to him the night before. I hadn’t meant to be, but I didn’t know what to say. I took a deep breath and sent him a quick message. “Hey. Jamie’s going to do that tissue procedure at 1:00.”
One of the things I hate the most is when people have an argument or something weird between them, but they just try to ignore it, like it didn’t happen. I knew that wasn’t the path to take with this, and I didn’t intend for that to be my solution, either, but for now, I didn’t know what else to do.
“Good morning, beautiful,” he replied, and it did make me smile. I guessed he wasn’t mad at me. That was something. “Can I go with you?”
“Sure,” I said. “I’m going to try to get some homework done, and then I might go for a run.” I didn’t want to do that at all, but I thought it might clear my head a little. I didn’t want to talk to him before the procedure, though. I really hoped he could sense that and wouldn’t want to discuss the state of us right before I had my arm sliced open.
“Okay. Let me know when you’re ready to go, and I’ll come over.”
That was about the best thing he could’ve said. “Thanks,” I replied and got back to my schoolwork.
I heard my sister out in the living room around 9:30 or so, but I didn’t go out to talk to her. I didn’t know what I would even have to say. I was sure she wasn’t mad at me, but she had to be wondering what had gotten into me the night before, and I had no easy explanation. I was glad when I heard her leave to go to the gym a few minutes later.
I did go for a run. After I finished my schoolwork and answered texts from my friends back home and called my mom. I didn’t tell her anything about Mina or Bonnie or the procedure. She’d just worry. I knew things would be different when she and Dad got here in a few weeks. For now, let her live in her cocoon.
