Altruist (The Altruist Series Book 1) (5 page)

After stalking the parking lot for 15 minutes we’re finally able to find a spot that Asher deems suitable. Getting out of the car, I scan the crowd at the gate for his face. Castle Rock, being the small town that it is, makes an event like this a town affair. Over the next two days, citizens from every sector will undoubtedly check out everything this Festival has to offer, making it extremely difficult to find someone. Soldiers walk the perimeter of the black top lot, ensuring that citizens aren’t loitering; it’s the epitome of forced fun. Talking is fine, but too much talking is dangerous. Walking closer to the ticket booth my heart begins to sink,
what if he didn’t come?

“Where is he?” Willa whispers into my ear.

“I don’t know, I don’t see him.” My heart sinks, maybe he’s really not that interested, maybe my middle of the night texts scared him off.

“Don’t worry Cate, whether he’s here or not, we’ll have fun. We have to, this is the one night where there’s actually something to do in Castle Rock.” I laugh. She’s right, it’s silly of me to base the enjoyment of my night on a guy a barely know.

“Class One’s! Sign up for military training today!” A recruiter shouts at the passing patrons, it seems innocent enough, until you realize that they’re offering the lowest class a way to bring their family out of the slums in return for a life of sworn service to the city. I think it is incredibly brave to offer up your life for people you will never meet, but not if it’s bought because you don’t know how else you’ll keep your family fed. Then it’s just the government exploiting good, responsible people, and that is wrong.

Reaching the ticket booth, I slide my jacket off and roll my sleeve up, place my arm under the scanner and see my ticket total register on the screen attached to the kiosk: 15 tickets. Each year my ticket allotment has gotten lower.

“Fifteen, huh?” Nods Asher. “They gave me eleven, I guess they figure you’re in need of more fun than I am.” I stare at the blue numbers, almost feeling numb as his words resonate. Whose job is it to decide how much relief each of us needs so that we’ll stay in line? “I paid for the wristband upgrade and I intend to take full advantage of this shindig,” he says. The Council isn’t opposed to taking what little amount of currency notes we have to add to their War Chests. Maybe one of these days one of the other Republics will actually attack us like we’re always being told they will. Wouldn’t that be something?

Just then out of the corner of my eye I notice familiar brown shaggy hair and the same smile from my dreams. Abel notices me at the exact same moment and we walk over to one another simultaneously. I try to slow my pace as to not seem too eager but his seems just as quick and before long he’s standing right in front of me.

“There you are! I was looking for you.” Abel grabs my hand. “Come on, I’m craving some bad festival food, maybe a pretzel.” He’s not the type of funny that makes an entire room crack up, but there’s something about the way he’s smiling at me and is so genuine about everything he says. Maybe it’s just me but bad festival pretzels seems a million times more desirable now.  As we sit down at a hard, white plastic circular table, I wish I had suggested something where I had an excuse to be closer to him.

“I’m sorry about those texts last night; I hope it didn’t come off as too strange,” I mutter.

“No, not at all, I was surprised to hear from you, didn’t think I would, definitely not in the middle of the night.” He tears apart a piece of the pretzel and dunks it into cheese. “What was keeping you up so late? Bad dream or something?”

“Yeah, sort of…” I stare down at my bottle of water, as if the plastic staring back at me will help me figure out how to explain my bizarre 3am behavior. “It’s weird, I keep having these dreams that seem so familiar and vivid. They’re not all that bad even though less than happy things happen. It was just that one, last night for whatever reason was particularly unnerving.” I stare back up at him, looking for a sign that I’m opening up way too much, way too fast, but he’s just looking right back at me, still and silent. Did I weird him out? I stare back into his clear blue eyes, even at dusk they still shine. “Did I say too much?” I ask, my body beginning to tense.

“No, no not at all. I just…I wish I could have helped you.” He looks down at his hands. “I mean, I wish I could have made you feel better when you woke up.” He seems so sad and whatever it is that I said or didn’t say, I feel as though it’s my fault.

“You did make me feel better,” I add quickly. He looks back up and our smiles meet.

“Come on, these tickets are burning a hole in my pocket,” he says and grabs my hand. I feel a rush of adrenaline pulse through my veins and stand up, following admirably.

“Cate!” Willa shouts, waving us over to meet her and Asher in line at a visibly poorly assembled ride. Loud screeching metal arms swing over our heads as its passengers spin in every direction possible, clearly screaming for their lives. This seems like a terrible idea.

“Hey, this is Abel. Abel, these are two of the most important people in the entire world to me, Willa and Asher.”

“Hi Abel!” Willa shrieks, her tone overwhelmingly high from anticipation. “I’ve heard so much about you.” She smiles adoringly at me and then back at Abel. Asher just nods his head and turns back around. “And this is Blake, my boyfriend.” Willa says while pulling Blake’s arm so that he’s facing our direction.

“Hey man, nice to meet you.” Abel holds out his hand and I immediately feel proud, this is my boy meeting Willa’s boy. Suddenly the idea of double dates and late night talks at a coffee shop sound so much fun, except one tiny hiccup—he’s not my boy, and I’m getting way ahead of myself. Blake reluctantly reaches his hand out. “Yeah, cool,” he murmurs and turns back around to finish talking to his obnoxious friends.

“Right, so if it’s cool I’m going to ride with Blake and you’ll ride with Asher okay?” Willa sputters, and then as if a flash of light goes off in her mind she reaches her hand out to Abel and grabs his arm. “Oh good grief, sorry Abe, I forgot, I’m not use to Cate having a plus one. Let me think…I just didn’t know Blake was going to be here and we were fighting but then he was acting so sweet and won me this tiny elephant and—”

Abel, noticing that this is seconds away from turning into a drawn out monologue jumps in, “No don’t worry about it, these sort of rides make me queasy anyway.” He flashes a smile. “I get crazy motion sickness.”

“Are you sure?” I ask.

“Yeah, absolutely, you guys have fun, I’m going to head over to the game booths. Come find me when you’re done.” He releases my hand and, not wanting Asher to see me too bummed out and feel uncomfortable about anything, I smile and watch him walk away.

Reaching forward I grab Asher’s arm and hold onto him, “Looks like it’s you and me, Asher.”

He laughs and nods over in Abel’s direction. “Seems like you guys are pretty comfortable together.” I want to shout
Yes! He’s amazing
, but Asher is so practical that he would think that was strange and so as to avoid a conversation in which for the first time in my life I’m behaving like a total girl I simply smirk, “Yeah, he’s alright.”

Asher rejoins Blake and Willa's conversation but I hang back. That adrenaline, that force of energy I felt moments ago has begun to dissolve and it isn’t long before my mind begins to wander. I stare down at the rough patch of dirt beneath my feet, the fairgrounds is normally home to horse and livestock and the air still smells of hay. My eyes start to feel heavy and a yawn creeps from my lungs, shaking my head a few times trying to push away the sleepiness, I wish I was in bed. Glancing down at my watch the digits read 7:10 pm, how can I possibly be this tired?

Inch by inch the line moves forward and for the first time I realize that I’m actually going to have to get on the sketchy contraption. Willa, Blake, and Asher flash the man operating the machine-of-death a wristband and climb aboard. I start to roll up my sleeves so that the man can scan my arm but my jacket gets in the way and what should be an easy fix becomes increasingly complicated with my nerves interfering with basic movements. “Sorry, just a second.” I fumble with my jacket and feel a yank on my arm.

“You’re holding up the line!” a raspy voice chides. “Stand to the side and let other people on while you’re trying to get with the program.” Asher looks back at me and tries to jump out of the bucket he’s strapped into but before he’s able the ride attendant pushes a red button and Asher swings up into the air, making room for the next couple to get on. I wave up at it him signaling that its fine and not to worry, he leans back and his face disappears.

Walking over to the side of the ride, I exhale a sigh of relief that my clumsiness has saved me from the stomach turning ride. I hunch over and rummage through my bag in search of some chapstick; I always carry some with me and the amount of times I apply it daily may be considered obsessive. I drop my bag to the ground and kneel over it, so focused on my current mission that I barely notice the tall figure standing behind me before I’m shoved into the dark field past the ride’s boundary. Falling back onto my hands I yell, “What are you doing?! Who are you? Here take my bag, you can have it!” I throw it at him but the man, dressed in dark slacks, a dark shirt and brown overcoat slowly moves towards me. I scramble backwards with each step he takes toward me but before I know it, he is hovering above me.

“What do you want?! Help!” I scream, raising my arms, a last ditch effort at protecting myself and squeeze my eyes, tears streaming down my face from fear.

“Oof.” The man groans and I hear a thud. Opening my eyes I make out that another body has driven the man to the ground and is bringing his fists down through the air with such velocity that blood begins to spiral and I am sure that the man will stop breathing. I find my way to my knees and stand up, yelling for help.  The man flips his attacker over and throws him onto his back. It’s Abel. My heart races. Abel brings his knee up into the man’s side over and over until he falls back. My attacker glances at me then runs off, disappearing into the trees. I rush over to Abel, helping him up onto his feet, “Oh my God, are you okay?”

I’m panicked and feel like my heart is about to burst from my chest. He reaches his hand to his forehead and when he brings it back down, blood trickles along his fingertips. Quickly he regains composure. “I’m fine, are you alright?” His voice creaks and sounds distressed, taking my face in his hands, he looks me over. “I heard you yelling and I got here as fast as I could. I’m sorry, Cate.”

I gasp for breath, trying to calm my heart rate. “I’m okay, I don’t know what happened. It was so fast.”

Abel looks over his shoulder scanning the tree line. “Did you see where he went?”

“I’m not sure,” I squint, hoping that I’ll be able to make out his path in the darkness. “No, he’s gone I think.”

“Let me take you home,” he says and grabs my hand.

The ride home is filled with anxious silence until my text message alert goes off. “Is that your parents?” Abel asks.

I unlock my phone and glance at the text, “No, Asher wondering where I went.”

“Oh.”

I don’t know why he’s being so quiet and distant now; the moments creep along, like we really are just strangers who’ve only known each other for a few days. He turns onto my street. “What are you going to tell your parents? Do you need me to go talk to them with you?” He pulls up to my house and puts the car in park.

I take his cue and match my tone to his, even and emotionless. “No, I’ll be fine, thanks for the ride.” I reach for the door handle and pull, but he jets his arm out and holds me back.

“I’m sorry for being so quiet, I just shouldn’t have left your side and I feel badly for what happened. It shouldn’t have.” He looks down at the steering wheel, I take his hand in mine. They’re defined and rough, masculine.

“Abel, I am so thankful you got there when you did, that you were there at all. You have nothing to feel badly about, I promise.”

His eyes meet mine. “As long as you allow me to be in your life Cate, I won’t let anyone hurt you, not again.” His voice is so serious it sends chills up my spine. I believe him. More than anything I have ever believed in my life, I believe him. And maybe because my heart is still pumping from the attack, maybe because I wanted him from the second he said hello in the library, maybe because of how genuine his words feel now and how much pain it seemed to cause him that he couldn’t prevent what happened, I lean over the center console and press my lips lightly to his. They’re sweet, soft. He sits there motionless, caught off guard in the driver seat for a moment until I feel his hand reach up to my face and his lips reciprocate. His strength is noticeably held back and all that remains is gentleness. When he pulls away, my eyes are still closed and my neck is still arched upwards, and even though I initiated that, I was not prepared for how I would feel when it ended.