Chapter 367
I didn’t know if Tara was aware of the meeting I was going to since she wasn’t invited, so I didn’t mention it. Instead, I thought back to how nice it would be if I didn’t have to go to training anymore. To my sister, who was stepping around us, I said, “Okay, but you said you’d arrange a hunt for me so I could get out of training, remember?” I grabbed her shoulder, nicely, and she turned to look at me.
“I know. I will. Soon.”
I hoped that meant today. “You better.”
“But then you won’t be able to stare at Alex.” Tara said his name way too loudly.
“Will you stop? Brandon is going to be angry.” I let go of my sister so I could confront my friend who was seeming a little too unfriendly at the moment. She laughed, and we headed for the locker room as my sister raced down the hallway. I glanced over my shoulder, still surprised to see how fast she can move. A pang of jealousy hit me in the gut. I wished I could do that. Tara could....
“I’m sorry,” she said, holding the door for me. “I shouldn’t tease you so much. It’s just... fun.”
“Yeah, well it’s not fun for me,” I shot back, headed straight for my locker. Most of the other girls were about done now and were getting dressed or brushing their hair. I was glad. There wasn’t a single one of them I wanted to speak to. Most of them ignored Tara and I now since they knew we’d be permanently staying in KC, and none of them would be.
“I’m sorry,” she said again. “I’ll try to stop.”
I shook my head at her and headed for the shower. Most of the time I chose to undress already in the shower, in the dry corner, because I am the youngest, and I still look like a little girl—a muscular little girl. I know it seems silly to be self-conscious, but I am. Tara is, too, and she also brought her stuff into the shower with her.
I tried to get out before her so I wouldn’t have to talk to her again. Maybe that’s not a good sign that your friendship is healthy, but at the moment, the last thing I wanted was to get sucked back into a discussion about Alex.
My shoes were on and I was brushing my hair when Tara came out. She didn’t bother to apologize again. “What are you doing today? More homework?”
She said it with the same sort of disdain for all things academic I currently felt. “I do have some, but....” I hesitated, not sure if I should tell her about the meeting. Deciding that my sister hadn’t told me not to, I went ahead and said, “I’m supposed to meet with Cadence and Aaron in a little while.”
“Oh.” Tara’s voice went all high at the end, like she wanted more info but didn’t want to ask. She did, though, eventually. “Who else is going to be there?”
“I don’t know. Probably not Alex,” I added, narrowing my eyes at her.
She snickered. “No, I would be shocked if he was. I was just wondering what it might be about.”
“I don’t know,” I repeated. I wasn’t about to go into any detail about everything that had been going on with Aaron and how it seemed to have affected the team. Nor could I tell her that my sister seemed like she wanted to go ahead and move in on the Vampires we’d been ignoring, including Holland. “I guess I’ll find out shortly.”
“Right,” Tara nodded. “Well, tell me what you can.”
“I always do,” I assured her, though that wasn’t true. Since she hadn’t mentioned Alex again, I decided to wait for her to finish, and we both headed out of the locker room at the same time.
Dax was waiting for us--for her anyway. “I thought maybe you went down the drain,” he teased.
“Sorry. We stopped to talk to Cadence,” Tara explained. I saw a glint in her eye and flashed daggers at her. She stopped short of telling Dax what we had been discussing.
For the most part, he only teases me if someone else brings it up first, so he kept his opinions to himself as we walked along. I realized I needed to hurry it up if I was going to eat something and make it to the meeting on time. I was certain my mom wouldn’t have anything prepared for my lunch after the breakfast incident. I felt bad again. I probably should’ve eaten the eggs.
We were pretty quiet until we reached the turn off to their apartments. “I’ll see you guys later.” I spun around and walked backward a few steps.
“See you. Let me know how the meeting goes,” Tara said, not for the first time. I nodded, leaving it to her to explain to Dax what she was talking about, and then turned to walk the right way before I crashed into someone or something.
I waved at Juan Diego in the lobby and then took the elevator upstairs. I opened the apartment door to find my mom still sitting in the same spot. She had a handful of index cards, though, and the papers on the table had been rearranged. I could still see a map and wondered what in the world she was looking at.
She glanced up at me, and I saw that she was still angry but not in a vicious way. “How was training?”
“Good,” I said, tossing my bag in my room. “I’ve gotta get to Cadence’s office, though. Did she tell you?”
“No, but Aaron did. I’m working on something for him. I was hoping you could take it over with you.”
“Sure,” I said through the passthrough from the kitchen to the living room. I grabbed a Hot Pocket out of the freezer and stuck it in the microwave. “What is it?”
“Well, it’s a map and some communication logs,” she replied, tossing her pen down. I thought for a moment she might be frustrated. Or maybe she didn’t even know what she was looking at. “I think I’m doing what he wants, but sometimes it’s hard to tell. This was the first time he’d asked me to do something like this. He’s been... distant lately.” She had no idea just how distant....
