Foreshadow (11 page)

“Why is Cady having her party on a school night anyway?”

“Today’s her actual birthday. She had to have her party on her actual birthday, no matter what,” I explained.

“What time would you be leaving, and when would you be back?”

“Cady wants me there at six. We’ll only stay for a couple of hours.”

“And Logan will go with you?”

“I won’t let her out of my sight, Genevra,” Logan chimed in.

“Well…I suppose it will be all right,” she finally agreed. “Cady doesn’t live that far, and you can get home quickly if there’s trouble. Just be sure to take your phone so we can reach each other. And be home by nine.”

I nodded in agreement. “Is it okay if we have dinner a little early, so we can eat before we leave?”

“Yes, it’s fine. I know how you hate party food. Why don’t you just put the meat in the refrigerator, and we can order pizza? Then you will have time to get ready for the party. Do you have a gift? I can run out and pick something up,” she offered.

“Pizza sounds great. No, I have a gift. You don’t need to go anywhere. Thanks for asking, though,” I said.

“What are you giving her?” Tanis asked. I had almost forgotten about her. She leaned against the counter behind me, sipping her soda.

“I’m giving her the cute blue silk blouse I bought last time we went shopping. I haven’t worn it yet, and I’m sure she will love it. Just don’t tell her I bought it for myself, okay?”

“You know you don’t have to worry about it. My lips are sealed,” she reassured me.

“Thanks. Uh, do you want to go with us?” I offered.

“No. Cady is more your friend than mine. Besides, I know she doesn’t like me. Thanks for offering though. I’m going to head upstairs and work on my homework.” She started to leave, but paused in the doorway. “Be safe, Rae.” She walked away before I could respond.

Well, that was weird.

“I’ll call for the pizza,” Genevra announced. She wandered away to find the phone, leaving Logan—who had been surprisingly silent—and me alone in the kitchen.

“So, do you want to bring Cady’s gift down here, and I’ll help you wrap it?” he asked.

“Sure! I’ll be right back.” I bounded up the steps and pulled the blouse out of my closet. I ran back down the stairs. “Logan, meet me in the living room. I have to get wrapping paper.”

I hunted through the storage cabinet where Genevra kept the wrapping paper. I found some silver tissue paper and a box. I grabbed scissors, tape, and a black marker off the top shelf, and tried to juggle everything while closing the door at the same time.

A hand reached over my head and pushed the door shut. I turned to find Logan standing behind me. “Thought you could use some help,” he told me as he took the box and scissors from me.

“Yeah, thanks. I almost dropped everything.”

We wandered into the living room and sat on the floor, spreading everything out in front of us. I blacked out the price on the tag of the blouse, folded it precisely, and placed it in the box. I put Logan in charge of cutting and taping. “Oh no! I forgot a bow!” I exclaimed as we finished.

“And a tag,” he pointed out.

I gave him a strange look. I didn’t expect a guy to bother with a gift tag. “I’ll be right back,” I told him.

I went back through everything in the closet and grabbed some ribbon, a fabric rose, and a gift tag. I joined Logan in the living room again. As we finished wrapping the gift, the doorbell rang. My heart leapt into my throat. Logan motioned for me to stay put, went over to the door, and peered through the peephole. He breathed a sigh of relief I could hear from the living room. “It’s the pizza.”

I don’t know which of us was more relieved. “Genevra, the pizza is here!” I called.

Genevra came into the foyer and opened the door for the pizza guy. She paid him, and Logan took the boxes for her. “Where do you want these?” he asked her as she shut the door.

“Oh, just place them on the kitchen counter. There’s no sense in having them cluttering up the dining room table,” she replied.

I got up from the living room floor and followed them, leaving the gift and wrapping implements on the ground. “Did you remember to order a veggie pizza for me?” I inquired.

“No, Raena, I ordered a cheese pizza. You’re the only one who will eat that nasty vegetable pizza. This way, it won’t go to waste,” she informed me.

“It wouldn’t go to waste,” I protested.

“Yes, it would. You can’t eat a whole pizza by yourself, and you never finish the leftovers. You will just have to live with cheese.”

I supposed I didn’t really need to argue. I didn’t mind cheese, and picking a fight with her over pizza toppings might cause her to change her mind about letting me go to Cady’s party.

Shane arrived home as we were setting the table. Logan chatted with my family during dinner. He fielded their questions easily, including—to my chagrin—Shane’s blunt inquiry— “So, Logan, what are your intentions with our Raena?”

I choked on my pizza. I grabbed my glass of water and chugged until I recovered.

Logan didn’t seem embarrassed, though I sure was.

He looked directly at Shane. “Well, I love Raena. Once we have dealt with this whole Andrei situation, I intend upon asking her to be my girlfriend. That is, if she wants to be. I know it might seem to you as though I came out of nowhere, but we have known each other for a while. I want nothing more than to protect her,” he said. “I will help shield her from Andrei, no matter what.”

Shane seemed satisfied at this. Everyone fell silent and went back to their food. Genevra’s eyes were a little wide, and Tanis looked amused. I, on the other hand, felt stunned. I knew of Logan’s feelings for me, but I had never expected him to freely admit everything to my family.

Tanis caught my eye, winked, and mouthed,
I told you so!

I gave her a half-smile and shook my head. I knew she’d been right about Logan, but I didn’t want her rubbing my face it in.

After we finished eating, I stood up and grabbed my plate off the table. “We need to go,” I told Logan. I took his plate, too, and walked them over to the sink.

Logan glanced down at my clothes. “Do you need to change?”

“Oh yeah! Um, I’ll be right back.” I rushed upstairs and dressed for the party. I didn’t want to subject Logan to any more of my family’s interrogations if I could help it.

I bolted back downstairs, my purse bouncing at my side. “Come on, let’s go!” I called.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Logan asked when he met me at the door.

I thought for a moment, but I couldn’t think of anything. Then it hit me. “Oh yeah, the gift!”
Talk about seriously scatterbrained.

I dashed into the living room and grabbed the gift off the floor. He followed behind me. He gathered the abandoned wrapping supplies and returned them to the closet for me. “Thanks!” I told him.

“No problem. I didn’t want you to get in trouble.”

“Good idea. Genevra! We’re leaving!” I hollered.

She appeared in the doorway. “Don’t forget your phone,” she reminded me.

“Don’t worry. I have it.”

“Be home by nine,” she added.

“I know, I know. C’mon, Logan!” I grabbed his wrist, opened the door, and hauled him out to the car.

“Be careful!” Genevra called after us as we headed down the sidewalk to where Logan’s car sat parked on the street.

“We will!” I yelled back.

Logan opened the car door for me, and I started to climb in. I tripped—big surprise—but he caught me before I hit the ground. “Careful,” he murmured in my ear, his breath heating my skin.

An involuntary shiver ran down my spine at his proximity.
Maybe I should rethink my earlier declaration that I
wasn’t
ready to be with him yet.

Logan helped me into the car and closed the door behind me. I watched him as he walked around the front of the car to the driver’s side. I did want to be with him—officially—but I didn’t want to be fickle. It didn’t seem fair to him to start dating him right after I’d broken up with Andrei. I didn’t want him to feel like my rebound guy. I was better than that, and Logan deserved better too.

“So, where does Cady live?”

I gave him quick directions as I fastened my seat belt. We made it to the house in record time.

Cady threw open the front door as we were walking up the driveway. “What took you so long?” she demanded.

I fumbled through my purse and glanced at the time on my phone. “We’re not late,” I informed her. “In fact, we’re five minutes early.”

She frowned. “Well, it felt like I’d been waiting for you forever.” She glanced to my left and noticed Logan. Her eyes bugged out to the point I thought they would pop out of her head. To her credit, she didn’t say anything obnoxious. “Hi, Logan,” she squeaked out.

“Hey, Cady.” He grinned at her. “I hope you don’t mind my coming.”

“Of—of course not,” she stammered. She clearly hadn’t recovered from the shock of seeing him with me yet again, let alone at her house.

Determined to end the awkwardness, I walked over to her and hugged her. “Happy birthday!” I exclaimed. “This is for you.” I shoved the tissue-wrapped box into her hands.

She glanced down at it. “Thanks, Rae. C’mon inside.” We followed her into the house, Logan hovering just behind me.

“Tristan’s already here,” she announced as we hung up our coats in her front closet. “
He
wasn’t late.”

I rolled my eyes behind her back. “We weren’t late!” I insisted.

She laughed at me. “I know, I know! Go ahead and go into the living room. I’ll be right back.” She disappeared into the kitchen, still clutching her gift.

Logan and I trooped into the living room. Tristan sat on the sofa, painstakingly blowing up balloons. “Well, at least she gave you a pump this time,” I joked.

Tristan didn’t even blink when he spotted Logan by my side. “Hey, you’re here. Rae, you can start hanging the streamers. Logan, there’s another balloon pump. You can help me blow up the five million balloons Cady wants.”

“She didn’t even bother decorating?” I asked Tristan.

“Nope. That’s what we’re here for.”

“What time does this actually start?”

“Seven. We have exactly one hour to trick out this room to Cady’s specifications.”

I hadn’t been expecting this. Leave it to Cady to rope us into doing everything. “I guess we should have come earlier,” I told Logan.

“Don’t worry about it. Let’s just get to work.”

Cady was conspicuously missing the entire time we spent decorating. She appeared just as we were putting the finishing touches on the room. “Oh, it looks wonderful!” she exclaimed.

“Who else is coming?” I asked her.

“No one,” she replied.

“What?” I dropped the roll of streamers I’d been draping around the cake table. “You mean we’re doing all this work for just the four of us?”

She nodded. “Plus my parents and my brother.”

I think my jaw hit the ground. “This is ludicrous, Cady!”

“I’m just kidding!” She grinned widely. “I got you!”

I wanted to throttle her, but I felt relieved. “So there
are
more people coming?”

“Yeah, like twenty kids from school, plus my grandparents and cousins and some other family. Oh, and a few of my parents’ friends.”

Wow. Her house would be packed. Well, at least we hadn’t done all this work for nothing. Plus, with so many people here, maybe she wouldn’t notice when Logan and I slipped out early so I could get home.

Her doorbell rang, and Logan and I froze. We were being too jumpy. It was only her grandparents, arriving with her aunt and two of her cousins. They came laden with gifts, which I helped place on the now-decorated gift table. “Where’s the gift from me?” I asked Cady.

“Oops! I left it on the dining table. I’ll go get it.” She disappeared again.

As she left, her mom started carrying food into the living room. “Oh, Raena, you’re here! Sweetie, could you do me a favor and help me bring in the
hors d’oeuvres
?
”

“Sure, Mrs. Nicholls.” Cady’s parents preferred to be called by their first names, Leah and Evan, but my mother had taught me to always call adults by their last names. It irritated Mrs. Nicholls a little—she said it made her feel old—but she dealt with it.

Logan followed behind me as I went into the kitchen with Mrs. Nicholls. I could tell he felt a little uncomfortable. He didn’t really know anyone there. I felt bad for dragging him along. We grabbed trays off the kitchen counter, and I pulled him aside as Mrs. Nicholls headed back into the living room. “I’m sorry for making you come with me,” I told him.

“It’s okay, Raena. I’m fine. This meant a lot to you, and to Cady. I’d rather be here with you than at home worrying if you’re okay.”

I searched his face, but his expression didn’t betray anything. “Okay,” I said. “But if you get too uncomfortable, just let me know and we’ll leave.”

“You got it. Now, let’s get these into the other room before Cady’s mom thinks we disappeared on her.”

Others had arrived while we’d been in the kitchen. Someone had put on some music, and the party was now in full swing. Cady danced with Tristan. I had always wondered about those two. They were always together, even more than I was with them, and neither of them would tell me who they liked. If anything did happen between them, I hoped Cady wouldn’t break Tristan’s heart. She could be kind of fickle.

After we helped Mrs. Nicholls, Logan and I stood off to one side and observed the party. Neither of us felt like celebrating. Just as Mr. and Mrs. Nicholls brought in the huge, three-tier, pale pink cake with candles ablaze, my phone chimed. I figured it would be Genevra or Tanis, but I pulled the phone out of my bag anyway and glanced at it out of curiosity.

When I saw the name attached to the text, my heart plummeted into my stomach. I had been hoping I could get through the day without having to deal with Andrei, but no such luck.

Logan saw my reaction and leaned toward me. “What’s wrong?” he whispered in my ear.

I didn’t answer. I just tilted the phone so he could read the message.
Where are you?
I waited for you after school. I need to talk to you. NOW!

Logan and I stared at each other in horror. As everyone began to sing “Happy Birthday” to Cady, Logan grabbed my arm and took off running for the door. It slammed behind us and probably disturbed the singing inside. I knew Cady would be hurt, and I would be hearing about it later. I would just have to beg her forgiveness and find a way to make it up to her once this blew over.

We sprinted towards the car and jumped in. Logan peeled away from the curb and started to rush back toward my house. “I
knew
this wasn’t a good idea!” he yelled.

“It’s not like he was
there
,” I protested.

“Still, we were in a place with a large crowd where it would be hard to escape.”

“It wasn’t hard to escape,” I pointed out. “We just ran out.”

Logan didn’t respond for a minute. Finally, he said, “I would feel better if you were safe at home.”

“Andrei knows where I live, remember? He’s shown up there before.”

“I guess no place is truly safe for you right now.”

“I guess not,” I agreed.

“But it doesn’t mean we don’t keep trying our best to keep you safe. I
will
protect you, Raena.”

I smiled at him, but he didn’t see it as he pulled up in front of my house. We headed inside and were bombarded by Genevra, Shane, and Tanis.

“What happened?” Genevra demanded.

“How do you know something happened?” I asked.

“You’re early. It’s only eight o’clock. You didn’t need to be home for another hour.”

“Well, I got a text from Andrei asking where I was. Logan and I kind of freaked, and we came home.”

“Were you followed?” Shane asked.

“I don’t think so,” Logan responded. “I checked the mirrors the whole way there and back, and I didn’t notice anyone following us.”

Everyone seemed relieved. “So what does everyone want to do for the rest of the night?” Tanis asked.

We spent a few hours playing board games and watching a movie. The rest of the evening passed uneventfully. No one seemed to want to go to bed. Genevra didn’t even suggest that Tanis go to bed, even though she had to go to school the next morning. I planned to stay home for the day, just to be on the safe side.

Logan finally stood. “I should get home before my parents start worrying.”

I walked him to the door. He hesitated in the doorway. “I hate leaving you alone,” he admitted.

“I’m not going to be alone,” I reassured him. “Shane and Genevra are home, and Tanis is just on the other side of the bathroom if I need her.”

“I know,” he said. “But I still don’t like it. I can’t protect you if I’m not here.”

“Unfortunately, you can’t watch out for me all the time. I’m sure I will be fine with everyone home.”

He stared at me for a few seconds. “Okay,” he said, “but I’m staying home from school tomorrow, and I’m coming over. I know Shane needs to go to work, and I don’t want to leave you and Genevra without protection.”

I knew he didn’t mean to be chauvinistic, but I had to correct him. I didn’t want him to think we couldn’t take care of ourselves. “I appreciate it, but we’ll be okay.” His face fell. “Not that I don’t want you to come over,” I added hastily. “I’m just worried about you missing too much school.”

“Let me worry about it, Raena. Once I explain to my parents what’s going on, they won’t have any problem letting me miss school to come over here. You won’t be at school for me to protect you, so I would like to be here with you in case anything happens.”

“Well, I would feel a lot better if you did come over,” I admitted.

That seemed to satisfy him. “I’ll be over around eight, okay? I want to be here early in case Genevra decides to drive Tanis to school. I don’t want you to have to be alone at all.”

I just sighed. I knew he meant well. He had seen how terrified I had been earlier and, to be perfectly honest, Andrei still scared me. I just didn’t want Logan to stress about this, and I hated to keep taking him away from school. It was bad enough I had to keep missing classes. “Okay, I’ll see you at eight.”

He hesitated, then leaned forward and kissed me. I instantly felt warmth come over me. My fingers and toes started to tingle. I didn’t have the presence of mind to remind him that I still needed some time. I felt my cheeks flush as we broke apart. “See you tomorrow, Raena,” he whispered. “I hope you sleep well.”

After watching him get into his car, I went back inside and closed the door. I headed upstairs to my room, determined to avoid Tanis’ unavoidable bragging.

Oddly enough, my sleep was surprisingly dreamless that night.