Eternity (22 page)

“Probably by
taking away her memories so she doesn’t have to live with them,”
Anna said, and I could hear what she was implying. It was kind of
strange talking to a vampire because she didn’t have an aura. She
could tell so much more about me than I could about her. It was the
opposite of what I was used to.

“It can be a
little unnerving for people, can’t it? I can’t say I personally
know what it’s like, but people do become uncomfortable if they
realize you know more about them than they think.”

“Um, yeah,” I
said. “Can you get out of my head please?”

“Sorry. I have
to go now anyway, so I’ll leave you alone. It was nice to meet
you,” Anna said. She got up and left, leaving me with my tumultuous
thoughts.

I sat there for
at least ten minutes just thinking about what she’d said. I had
such a hard time believing I wasn’t supposed to be with Adrian.
From what Anna had said, it sounded like I hadn’t met my real
soulmate yet, but I was glad that I had one out there somewhere,
even if it wasn’t Adrian. I wondered if Jack had a soulmate. I made
a mental note to ask Anna if he did the next time I saw her. If he
did then he wouldn’t have to live with wanting to be with me, and
it would make me happy if he could be truly happy.

Chapter
28

The next day in
Calculus, when Adrian finally showed up, I couldn’t help but think
that maybe Anna had been wrong. My heart started beating faster
when he sat down next to me and gave me one of his sly smiles. He
told me that he hadn’t been in class for the past two days because
he’d been forced to meet with his therapist. She was still trying
to determine if he was safe to be around other people.

“I had to meet
with her again today, but it was during lunch time,” he said. “She
keeps putting me through a bunch of tests to see how I’ll react. I
failed a couple the first time, but I’m passing them now. She said
I’ll be able to be free by Friday, as planned.”

“That’s great!”
I exclaimed. “We’ll actually be able to see each other without
having to sneak around, and you’ll be able to go outside!”

Adrian
continued grinning. “I know. It’s going to be great. I’m really
getting tired of having teachers following me around everywhere,
especially Mr. Ramirez. He likes creating energy fields to keep me
in line. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve walked into
them.”

“Do you feel
like you’re ready?” I asked. “Do you feel like you’re more in
control than you used to be?”

Adrian frowned.
“I don’t know,” he said, shrugging. “I haven’t exactly been testing
my control lately, at least outside of therapy. I don’t feel like
I’m going to lose my temper, but I never do until it happens
anyway. I hope I can keep myself calm. My therapist suggested yoga,
but I don’t think that would help. I need more experience with
being a wolf so that I can learn to feel more human. The only time
I ever feel human when I’m a wolf is when I’m with you.”

“Did you ask if
you could practice?”

“No. We aren’t
allowed until second year. This year we just talk about what it’s
like and how to control yourself in class. It seems like a
pointless system if you ask me.”

“Yeah, and it
isn’t what you really need. You’d think they would know that by
now. This school has certainly been around for long enough.”

We were
interrupted by the start of class, per usual, though we had time to
talk more later on when we were working on some questions. I agreed
to help Adrian practice being a wolf more once he got out of
isolation. It was completely against the rules, but that had never
stopped us before.

Friday finally
came, and I was really excited. I got dressed in a hurry and went
down to the cafeteria. I found Jack sitting by himself and looking
quite grumpy. He didn’t even smile when I sat down across from
him.

“Something
wrong?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said.
“Adrian moved back into my room this morning. I was hoping he would
be in isolation for the rest of the school year, but apparently
that isn’t going to happen. They should have at least kept him in a
different room so I wouldn’t have to deal with him. He was even
trying to be nice to me, which was just creepy.” He looked at me.
“Stop smiling, Jules. This isn’t a good thing. That guy should stay
locked up. You’re not still seeing him, are you?”

I tried to
suppress my smile, but it was kind of difficult. “Yes, actually I
am,” I informed him. “I never stopped. I just stopped talking to
you about it because I knew you wouldn’t be happy.”

Jack rolled his
eyes. “Of course I’m not happy about it. It means I have to worry
about your safety all the time, and I shouldn’t have to. Why
couldn’t you go out with someone normal?”

“Nothing in my
life has ever been normal, Jack. I’m not even normal, and neither
are you, and neither is anyone else in the entire school. Besides,
you don’t have to worry about me. Nothing’s going to happen.”

“He’s hurt you
before, remember?”

“That was an
accident. You’re never going to let that go, are you?”

“No, I’m not.
I’ll see you in class,” Jack said as he took his last bite of
breakfast and got up to leave.

“Jack, please
try to get along with him,” I said before he walked away. Instead
of responding he just frowned and left.

I was getting
really tired of trying to convince Jack that Adrian was okay, which
was why I’d stopped trying for a long time. The conversations we
had about him always ended up the same, with me wanting him to give
Adrian a chance, and him arguing that he was dangerous. I already
knew that, but I still trusted him. I was pretty sure the reason
Jack didn’t like Adrian had more to do with him hurting me than
with jealousy, but it could have been a combination of the two.

“What’s up with
him?” Melissa asked, taking the seat that Jack had just
vacated.

“Don’t ask,” I
said, spooning myself some oatmeal.

“Does it have
something to do with that Adrian guy being free again?”

I was
surprised. “How did you know about that?” I asked.

“People talk,”
Melissa said, shrugging. “It’s not like there’s been much else
going on for gossip lately anyway.”

I laughed. “I
guess we’ll have to do something crazy to get people talking
again,” I joked.

Melissa rolled
her eyes. “As much as it was fun the last time, I’m not sure how
many times one can get in trouble without being expelled.”

***

I got to the
cafeteria early at lunch time, so there weren’t very many people
there yet. I sat by myself at a corner table and brought out my
homework so I could try to get it done early. I wasn’t sitting for
long when someone joined me. I looked up and saw that it was
Adrian, who smiled. It was the first time I had ever seen him eat
in the cafeteria. The only time I’d ever even seen him in there was
the time he’d tried to attack Michael. I mentioned as much to
him.

“Yeah, I know,”
he said. “Normally I don’t like eating in here because it’s loud
and busy, but I figured I’d find you here. Plus, it’s really nice
to be able to enjoy my new freedom.”

“Jack told me
you already moved back to your old room. It must be weird to be
back there.”

“Yeah, I moved
my stuff over this morning before breakfast. I tried to be polite
with Jack for your sake, but he wasn’t buying it.” Adrian shrugged,
as if he didn’t really care. “At least I actually bothered to make
an effort, unlike him. He really hates me.”

“You never used
to like him either,” I pointed out.

“I still don’t,
but I’m trying.”

I sighed. “I
guess that’s all I can hope for,” I said. I just wished that the
two most important people in my life would get along so I wouldn’t
have to choose who to spend time with. Clearly, that wasn’t going
to happen any time soon.

When Jack came
into the cafeteria he looked over at us. He frowned at me and gave
Adrian a dirty look before going to sit with some of his werewolf
friends. Heather and Melissa acted similarly when they came in.
They looked over at us and looked confused, and they sat down with
Rhea at another table. In fact, it seemed like everyone was
avoiding our table, though we got a lot of looks. I didn’t know if
it was because they were surprised to see Adrian among them or if
they were surprised to see me with him, since everyone knew he’d
hurt me. They probably thought I hated him or something, which
bothered me.

“Don’t worry
about it,” Adrian said when I mentioned it to him. “Your friends
will come around, except maybe Jack, and who cares what the rest of
them think.”

“I guess there
isn’t much point in worrying. Things will be what they will
be.”

“Yeah, there
isn’t much we can do about it. Want to watch a movie or something
tonight? It’s Friday, so there isn’t much else to do.”

“Actually, I
wanted to go swimming tonight since I haven’t in a while. Feel free
to join me though,” I said. “I’ll be at the pool by around six
thirty.”

“Sounds like
fun,” was Adrian’s reply.

After we went
swimming that evening, which was a lot of fun, we decided to go out
for a walk, since Adrian hadn’t been out in so long. We went out
into the cool evening air and walked hand in hand along the edge of
the forest. It was a quiet and clear night, and the moon was
getting close to being full. I asked Adrian if he wanted to
practice changing and being a wolf, but he said he just wanted to
relax. Instead, we both enjoyed the fresh air and the relaxing
sounds of the forest, like the rustling of leaves and the
occasional calls from birds. It was a peaceful and romantic
atmosphere, and we stayed out just walking until it was time to get
inside before curfew.

Chapter
29

The rest of the
weekend passed by too quickly. I spent some time on Saturday in the
library as I usually did, only I had Adrian with me, who seemed to
enjoy reading almost as much as I did. It was a nice change, and we
even discussed some of the books we’d both read. He agreed with me
that Isadora’s stories all seemed to come to tragic ends, and I
agreed with him that the speeches in Dracula were way too long to
be realistic.

I spent most of
Sunday with my friends. Jack and I played tennis outside, which I
wasn’t very good at. He beat me easily since he was so much faster
than I was because of his werewolf reflexes and strength, but it
was still fun. In the afternoon I watched TV with Rhea and Heather,
while Melissa was off watching another band practice, though she
complained before she left that Michael never asked her out. She
didn’t give up that easily, though.

That night
there was another dance recital going on in the ballroom, so we
went to go see it. There were dance classes held at the school, and
the teacher was a professional, and I heard she taught well. That
night the dancing was ballet, and it was very well done, so I
enjoyed it. I wished I was able to move like they could, but I
figured it probably took years of practice and more natural grace
than I possessed.

Things went
well for the rest of the week. I continued to work hard in class,
and I was really starting to get better at controlling my drawing.
I also found that I was getting better at fighting, and when I was
paired with Lucas even he noticed that I was more of a challenge.
In my free time I was mostly with Adrian, who was happier than I
had ever seen him. I also spent a lot of time with Jack and with my
roommates. Jack continued to complain about Adrian, especially
whenever he saw us together. I didn’t hear any more about him and
Heather, though they seemed to be on good terms.

With things
going so well for so long, I almost started to get suspicious. It
was becoming clear to me that I was getting far too used to crazy
things happening, and I was almost bored. Still, I was glad to have
some peace, even though it didn’t last. Even with my suspicions
that something would happen eventually, I didn’t even realize just
how much things were about to change.

The problem
didn’t start until Friday. I’d spent breakfast and lunch with
Adrian, and supper with Heather, and I spent the evening with Jack.
He was complaining that I didn’t spend enough time with him
anymore, though I was seeing him as often as I did before Adrian
got out. We spent the evening in the west wing watching a movie.
Jack had managed to find some popcorn for us, which seemed to be a
rare commodity at Winterwood, like any other type of junk food. The
movie was a romantic comedy, which wasn’t exactly my favourite
genre, but Jack had picked it, saying he’d heard good things about
it.

We sat close
together so we could both reach the popcorn, which was in a bowl on
my lap. It was originally on Jack’s lap, but he almost knocked it
over a few times. He was acting kind of weird, and he was nervous.
I didn’t understand why, but I could see it in his aura. He looked
over at me almost as often as he looked at the movie, which was as
boring as I’d expected it to be. I was getting tired of all the
stupid jokes that seemed to be in every romantic comedy. I
preferred epic movies.

About halfway
through the movie, I noticed that Jack had his arm behind me on the
edge of the couch. It wasn’t touching me, but it was close. I
looked over at Jack, but he was busy pretending to watch the movie.
He laughed at a stupid joke and reached for some popcorn, but he
wasn’t looking, and he ended up knocking the bowl to the floor, and
popcorn went everywhere, including all over me.

“Sorry!” Jack
exclaimed. He jumped up and started sweeping the popcorn back into
the bowl with his hand. I bent down to help him.

“Are you
alright?” I asked. “You’ve been acting a little strange all
night.”