Chapter 32
I went to my room early that night under the pretense that I was tired and wanted to get a good night’s sleep before returning to school the next day, but I lay awake staring at the ceiling for what seemed like hours. My sister and I had carried on a meaningless conversation earlier in the day, and I went back over every detail, trying to figure out if there was anything at all that could be a clue as to what might be going on with her. There was nothing. I even attempted to take her pulse at one point, pretending just to want to hold on to her arm, but her heartbeat seemed normal. If she was on some sort of illicit drugs, wouldn’t her heart be racing?
Glancing at the clock, I saw that it was almost 11:00 and groaned. The alarm would be going off way too soon. I closed my eyes and tried to think of nothing, but that was difficult when visions of vampires filled my brain, and I had so many conversations replaying.
A few minutes later, I heard my sister’s window open and close very quickly again. Cadence said something I didn’t understand, and Aaron replied. Whatever he said must’ve been hilarious because Cadence was giggling. Her bed squeaked, and then I heard footsteps over by the window. I assumed they were sitting in her chairs again and wondered how long this conversation might take and if I would hear a single word that made any sense to me.
The answers were “a long time,” and essentially, “no.” There wasn’t much to be heard through the wall this time. It was as if they both thought I might be listening in so they kept their voices down. I made out an odd word here and there, nothing too important, though I did catch Eliza’s name more than once, and I thought I heard Cadence say something about shopping. Eliza seemed like the kinda girl who’d like to do a little shopping, I thought.
It was well past midnight when Aaron finally left. I didn’t really hear the window open or close this time, but I did hear him hit the ground outside. I would’ve liked to run over to the window to see if he dashed away the same as he had the first time, but the distant sound of an engine confirmed he’d done the same thing as he had before. No one could cover that much ground that quickly, regardless of what kind of drugs they might be taking. That left little doubt in my mind that the sickening scenario Lucy and I had come up with had to be about the only answer.
I heard my sister let out a loud sigh and thought she was definitely smitten with that guy. It seemed to me like the feeling must be mutual, though I couldn’t be sure. I still thought there was a chance he was batting for the other team, and Cadence was just trying to make a conversion.
None of that really mattered, however, if he was a vampire. Especially if my sister was one, too. I needed to talk to Lucy to see if she’d come up with anything. Maybe there was a chance vampires weren’t really what I thought they were and there was some coven of helpful vampires. My mind returned to Twilight. Maybe I needed to watch that movie again. I’d read the books, too, but I didn’t have time to go back through all of that again, not when my sister could be leaving any day.
There was also the matter that I’d have to talk to Dr. Sanderson again the next day. I knew he’d do his best to make sure I was thinking what everyone else wanted me to be. I hoped I’d be powerful enough to fight him off and maybe get some answers myself. Was there a possibility I could be honest with him? He was a professional after all, wasn’t he?
I rolled over again. At least with all of this craziness going on, I didn’t have time to worry about what everyone at school the next day might think of me and my sister. Hopefully, the rest of the student body would be so distraught about Drew, no one would think to ask me about Cadence.
* * *
First period. I didn’t even make it through first period before I was asked a ton of questions about my sister. Our teacher, Mrs. Neally, allowed us a few minutes at the end of the period to “chat quietly” while she graded a pop quiz she’d given us first thing on the day back from a long break, which was just awesome by itself, and as soon as they had the opportunity, everyone in the two rows on either side of me turned, staring.
“So… how’s your sister?” Bridgette Turner, a girl on my cheerleading squad, asked, her green eyes narrow like she was digging for dirt.
“She’s sad,” I replied with a shrug.
“I heard they made her drop out of college because she’s on the brink of a nervous breakdown.” Dustin Pollard is such a goon. I turned and glared at him.
“You heard wrong. She decided to take a little break, that’s all. She’ll go back.”
“I heard Jack Cook is a basket case,” Lloyd Tulley proclaimed loud enough to get a shush from Mrs. Neally who was puzzling over our quizzes. In a somewhat quieter voice, he added, “At least he was able to go back to school today, though.”
I opened my mouth to say something in Jack’s defense, but before I could get a single word out, a familiar voice from right behind me said, “Hey, why don’t you guys just leave Cassidy alone, huh? This can’t be easy on her either.”
I turned to smile at Liam, hoping my cheeks weren’t as red as they felt. He nodded at me, his blue eyes twinkling, and as his head shifted, his long, blond bangs fluttered in the breeze. I took a deep breath. Perfection in a pair of blue jeans. “Thanks, Liam.”
“You bet, Cass.” He continued to smile at me. “And… can you help me with algebra again, later on this week?”
“Uh, yeah. Of course,” I stuttered, wondering if his help had anything to do with needing mine. “Just let me know what day.” I had piano lessons on Thursday, but he already knew that. Since football season was over, I didn’t have anything else on my schedule, and I didn’t mind helping him out. It was nice just to be in his presence, though I got the impression he knew that.
