Dark One: One for Sorrow... (The Khiara Banning Series Book 1) (7 page)

Tristan sees through my lie and simply smiles. “Cara’s changed a lot since we first met. She tried to get me to go out with her the day we met, but I told her I wanted to get to know her. I guess she’s not used to people saying no to her.” Cara blushes and ducks her head. “So, we went out on a couple of dates and I guess we’re official now, since you know. I’m not surprised she didn’t say anything yet, I’m sure she’s wanted to tell you for quite some time.”

Cara turns to me, “I have, my honeybun. I just didn’t want to jinx it. You know me; I’m not usually the…long lasting relationship type. But this is different.”

I smile at her. “It’d have to be for you to keep him from me. But you’re lucky, I like him.” Tristan smiles at this and Cara fist pumps.

“Well then let’s get moving already! I wanna find a dress,” says Janie, rather impatiently.

We walk around the mall a couple of times looking for dresses, and I nod nonchalantly at everything Cara and Janie pick out for me; while Janie pretty much hates me, she’s Cara’s friend – when she needs a kick of girly companionship that I can’t always offer – and she isn’t always such an ass towards me.

Tristan seems to disappear at times, but always returns when I least expect it, and I wonder what he’s off doing when he’s not around us until I see him on a bench just outside of the store we’ve chosen, which is owned by Janie’s aunt, reading quietly. I smile at that.

I turn around and notice that Chris is just standing there with that same stony expression on his face, and again I wonder what his problem is.

At one point, I decide to ask because it’s just pissing me off not knowing. “Chris, what’s up with the miserable face? Do you not enjoy seeing your girlfriend in revealing dresses? Or is my loser presence starting to give you a headache?”

Shaking his head he says, “That’s not it, Janie’s a babe, don’t get me wrong here. I just
can’t stand
Cara. I can’t be around her, but she’s Janie’s friend so I have to act like I enjoy her company. I don’t hate you, and really Janie doesn’t either, but she’s not exactly one to let go of grudges. You spilled your drink on her when you first met her, remember? She was wearing her new dress.” I roll my eyes.

“Why do you hate Cara so much?” I ask feeling obliged to do so, also ignoring the fact that Janie apparently hates me just because of something I did a couple of years ago.

Chris smiles wistfully. “Because she hurts guys like me. I used to be the
biggest
geek until High School, you know that. But when I met Janie, who was the nicest and prettiest girl I’d seen since, well, you know, ever, I just knew I had to be with her. She had moved here from Georgia and right into my heart. She was in the same church as me and everything. I had to get to know her better, but not as
me
. Not the real me.”

He sighs, “That summer I bulked up, I lifted weights, I swam for hours and I ran like nobody’s business. My dad was so proud of me, finally becoming the Chris he wanted me to be, not a nerd that was in love with Star Wars.”

“For the record, I thought you were pretty cool the way you were before. You used to actually talk to me in the halls.” I point out.

He laughs a bit at that. “By the time we were all in High School after summer, I got up the courage to talk to her. She didn’t even know who I was, only that I was hot and on the football team
and
in the same church as her. We went out on the weekends, and I always brought her home for curfew. She seemed so nice at the time…and then she just started getting angry for no reason.”

“What happened? How’d she get to be the Janie we all love to hate today? I mean, the first day I met her after hearing about ‘the new girl’ all week, I kind of got on her eternal shit list for spilling my drink down her dress…”

He shrugs. “She’s nice underneath it all, really, but I think just really angry inside and I don’t know why. She’s just mean to you because you’re so damned nice, even when she’s so mean to you. You’re
genuine
I guess and she wants to be like that too. You don’t have to fake who you are like the rest of us. I think Janie acts the way she does because she’s tired of being her, but at the same time she wants to devote herself to The Lord, just like a good girl should. I don’t expect you to forgive her for being so nasty to you.”

Nodding my head I let out a long deep breath that I didn’t know I was holding. “I understand, and yeah, I still don’t forgive her. I know what you mean when you say Cara hurts ‘guys like you’. But I know why, and even though I don’t condone it I can’t stop her from dating people, and it’s not like she’s actually doing anything wrong with them. She’s had a hard time with men, it’s no secret. I don’t expect you to start liking her or feeling sorry for her because she has daddy issues, but well, just to understand why.
And actually, she hasn’t dated anybody for a good couple of months. She might be past her phase, you never know.”

What I don’t tell Chris is that Cara and I found her father hanging from his closet in his study, with dried tearstains on his cheeks, and a look of pure hopelessness on his face. Not long after he was buried her mother brought in her boyfriend, who she’d been seeing at the same time as Cara’s father. That arrangement didn’t last long though.

He’s in jail under molestation charges- you can guess why. That’s the reason she hurts guys like Chris, because all of the men in her life betrayed her or left her, and she’s trying to find a way to deal with that. I don’t even think she knows that herself, or at least she can’t admit it to herself yet, and every time I try to bring it up she gets really upset.

We stare at each other for a while and Cara breaks the silence. “Oh this is just perfect! I’m getting this one!”

And just as quickly as it started, our little heart to heart ended.

“Great!” Janie runs up to Chris and gives him a big hug, “What do you think about
my
dress choice?” She’s wearing a golden ball gown, the typical dress that girls would choose for a semi-formal dance such as the one we’re going to.

He says enthusiastically, “You’re stunning-” but catches himself, “I mean, you look really hot, Babe.”

On Cara, is a dress the colour of a Granny Smith apple. It has layers of ribbon falling down from her chest and down her sides. There is a huge bow at the back of it, and it looks terrible on her. How am I going to tell her that the dress she chose completely does nothing for her?

Awkwardly, I put my hand on her shoulder and say, “Erm, Cara…that dress…you’re really going to wear that?”

Cara laughs heartily, “No I’ve got the same dress as Janie but in red, this is disgusting, but I wanted to get your attention. I’ve found the perfect dress for you,” she grabs my arm, walks me to one of the changing rooms and throws me in, “it’s in there, Babe. I think you’ll love it.”

Sighing, I turn to look at the dress. It’s gorgeous, elegant and fairy-like all at once. It’s strapless, and goes down to, I estimate, just above the knees. The chest area has green and purple sequins, and just below that is a ribbon the colour of green leaves, that goes all the way around. In the middle of that ribbon is a flower of the same colour. Below that, is where the dress truly begins. From the waist down, layers of pink and light green mesh cover silk, which is a darker green, the same as the ribbon on the chest area.

After I’ve put it on, I walk out of the dressing room and Cara squeals, “Oh, I knew that would look fabulous on you! I’m buying, my treat!” and takes out her wallet, “how much is it?

Checking the tag I almost die. “It’s six-hundred dollars…”

Standing at the cash, Cara says, “Don’t worry! I’ve got it, let me just swipe my credit card annnd…”

Smugly, the cashier looks at Cara and says, “Declined.”

Cara doesn’t even look defeated and begins to pull out one of her spare cards but I stop her before she can swipe it. “Cara, buy your dress. It’s no big deal, I’ll buy myself something cheaper later on.”

She smiles at me. “You’re sure? I wanted to buy you a dress as a thank you gift for being such a good friend…” but I nod my head and tell her to buy her dress. Gratefully, she hugs me and does just that. I think I just remembered why I’m her friend in the first place. At times when she’s being like this, it’s easy to remember, but at other times, it’s also easy to forget.
 

After both Cara’s and Janie’s dresses are purchased, we decide to get some lunch. As we walk back to the food court, my stomach grumbles like mad and I frown. I really have to eat more these days. I decide that I want to get a blueberry bagel and a large moxie cherry cola. Make that two cherry colas – I’m parched.

After we have all ordered our respective meals, we decide to sit where Tristan was sitting when we met him. While walking to our seats, I notice that my shoe’s broken. I sigh and bend down to examine it, placing my food on the table next to me. This is a huge mistake; next thing I know, I’m being tripped over and ice coffee has been spilled all over my shirt.

I turn around to give the person a piece of my mind, but everything I was about to say dies in my throat. There, on the floor next to me, is Cael. He’s wearing a black hoodie and the same pants he wore when we met yesterday.

When he notices that it’s me, whatever he was about to say dies in his throat as well. Instead, his eyes go huge and his face reddens.

Scrambling to his feet, he says, “Khiara! Oh my God, I’m so sorry about this.”

He helps me up and passes me a napkin, as if it were a peace offering. I’m just smiling like an idiot. Reaching for the napkin, I realize it’s soaked as well. His face is a mirror image of my own.

“Cael, that napkin’s, uhh, kinda soaked.” I say, and his face reddens even more than I thought possible. “It’s okay. I’m in my hobo clothes anyway.”

All of a sudden, I realize that Cara and the others, well mostly Cara, are waiting for me. Cael takes off his hoodie and hands it over to me. “You’d look better in it than me anyway, and it’s the least I could do. Just take your shirt off in the bathroom and change into it, but before you do that, I think you should probably explain what’s going on to your friends. Two of them look really annoyed at having to wait.”

Laughing, I say, “Oh, no. If anything, Janie wants me to leave and Chris wants to leave himself.”

Cael digests this and asks quietly, “Do you want to hang out then?” and I wish so bad that I could say yes. Because I really do want to hang out with him. But I told Cara that I’d spend the day with her, and so I have to.

I begin to explain to him, “Cael, I really wish I could say yes. But, the truth is, Cara wants me to-” but he cuts me off, “It’s no problem. I get it; she’s your friend. Well, I don’t want to keep you, so I’ll watch your tray while you change.”

Seven

After I’ve changed into the hoodie and out of my wet, coffee stained shirt, I walk out of the girls’ room to find my tray and Cael gone. I look around and note that he’s sitting with Cara, Chris, Janie and Tristan. Cara is blabbering on about something to him, and I know it’s about me. I’ve never had a boyfriend before, not that he is my boyfriend or anything, and I know that she’ll just assume that any boy she doesn’t know, that I happen to talk to is the biggest love of my life. She’s like a stereotypical mom when it comes to things like this.