House of Korba: The Ghost Bird Series: #7 (The Academy) (8 page)

“Do you like living here?” I asked him as he led me between two buildings and around a pond. Now that we were in the sun, it warmed my body enough to almost enjoy the weather. I couldn’t believe it was almost November and I could walk around in shorts. “I mean in these apartments?”

“It’s okay,” he said, shifting his hand until his palm met mine in a more substantial grip. “South Carolina isn’t bad. I like the weather. Charleston is nice, but it isn’t Greece.”

“Do you miss Greece?”

He flashed a smile at me, giving my hand a gentle squeeze. “Not today.”

I stared at some Halloween decorations along a few of the porches. I wondered if Greece had Halloween. I couldn’t imagine what it must be like to live a million miles away. I’d moved here, but besides the weather and a beach nearby, it was at least the same language and culture. “But you do sometimes?”

“Do you miss Illinois?”

“No.” I felt that was an honest answer. Why would I miss a place where I didn’t have friends and didn’t ever go anywhere to see things?

He tilted his head at me, raising an eyebrow. “I mean besides living with your crazy parents? Wasn’t there something you liked about it?”

It took me a moment to respond. “The snow, perhaps. I know it doesn’t really snow here, right?”

“I’ve never seen snow,” he admitted. “Not in person.”

I popped my mouth open, but I didn’t realize that perhaps some of the boys, if they’d never been out of South Carolina, they might not have ever seen snow, either. “It doesn’t snow in Greece?”

“Not on the islands where I’m from.”

I followed Silas into one of the large buildings near the front office that we had seen when driving in. There was a collection of exercise equipment to the right, reflected in the mirrors hanging from the walls. To the left were a few sauna rooms, a small hallway to restrooms and changing rooms. Further down was a sunroom area, where a large octagon hot tub sat in the middle.

The room was steamy and heady with pool chemicals. The tub looked clean, with clear aqua water. There were a couple of lounge chairs surrounding the tub under the sunlight streaming in from the windows. A large flat television hung up on one wall, turned to a news station, though the sound was muted.

“Who watches the news while they sit in a hot tub?” Silas asked, dropping the towels onto one of the chairs which he dragged close to the edge of the hot tub. He studied the television and then scanned the area as if looking for a remote.

I was drawn to the water, too curious for my own good. I crept up to the edge, touching the water with a toe. I yanked back quickly. The water was exceptionally warm. Since the room was hot, too, it seemed like a silly idea to slip into equally warm water. I wasn’t sure I was going to understand hot tubs.

Silas managed to find buttons on the side of the TV and switched to a football game. Satisfied, he crossed back to me, hiking the shirt up over his body and dropping it onto the chair next to our towels. His broad shoulders and the muscles of his chest and stomach flexed in a way that sent a ripple of tingles through my spine. Greek gods couldn’t have been designed any better.

He stared back at me, cocking his head to one side with an eyebrow going up. “What are you waiting for?” he asked.

“You,” I said.

He flashed a smile and dropped his keys and our phones by the edge near the pool. He crouched down, slipped his feet in and inched down until he was sitting inside, the water went up to just under his chest. “Come on.”

I was hoping he’d say it was too hot. I sucked in a breath, slid my foot in, resisting the urge to pull out because it felt too warm. Maybe it was because we’d walked in here from the chiller air outside. It was like stepping into a hot shower and your body is still chilled. My body tingled at the temperature change. I managed to stand on the seating area before I wimped out. “It’s hot.”

“Hot tub,” he said. He curled his fingers at me. “Come on, you’ll get used to it.”

I huffed, slowly lowering myself until I was on my knees on the seat. It felt like the lower I got down, the warmer the water was. Silas reached a hand out and I took it, letting him pull me over in the water until I was next to him. With my butt on the seat, the water was up to my chest. I let my feet rise up so I wasn’t touching the bottom because it was too hot down there for me.

He grinned, and swung his head around. “Okay, there’s a button here somewhere.”

“What does the button do?”

“You’ll see,” he said, but focused on a spot on the wall across the room. Silas stood up, moved across the tub and got out on the other side, dashed for the button, pushed it and started back.

The tub started whirling to life around me, and a jet started spraying me in the back under the water. I moved out of its way. The water started swirling around, making a slight whirlpool effect.

Silas jumped back in, crossing over until he was next to me. “See? Nice.”

Now that I was in, it did feel good. The jets were interesting. Silas put an arm around my shoulders, and I could sit back, my head resting on him. We cuddled together in the water, watching the muted images of the football game. This was different, but what I expected of Silas. There wasn’t the intensity like we were when we’d sat on his couch. Was it because anyone could walk in at any moment? Did North say something to him that made him back off?

But here I was next to him, my head on his arm and my thigh brushing his. Maybe it wasn’t Silas throwing signals at me that he wanted to kiss me. Maybe it was in my head because I was nervous being in his house for the first time. I’d been in his lap before. He’d been close to me. I wasn’t scared until I was here at his house.

But then why did North feel he needed to spy on us and zap Silas?

One of our phones started to rattle against the concrete behind us. Silas turned to check over my head at them. “It’s yours, Sang.”

I puffed out a breath. “If it’s North, I’m tempted not to answer.” I turned to hang over the edge and grab my phone. I leaned against the wall, reading the name.

I pushed the button. “Luke?”

“Why is North yelling at me?”

“I don’t know,” I said, while at the same time feeling Silas’s hands on my back, doing something to the shirt I was wearing. The material was sticking to my body, so I thought at first he was straightening it. When I looked back, he was staring at my butt. I reached around, trying to cover the word scrawled across my hips, but he patted my hand away, pulling the shirt up higher over my waist as his fingertip trailed over the lettering.

“Well,” Luke said, distracting me from Silas, “it’s something about you. He said you were mad at him and hung up on him. He just snapped at me for not tying my shoes.”

I made a number of surprise, how-dare-he noises into the phone. It was unfair of North, who started this, to be yelling at Luke. “Tell him to stop.”

“What?”

“Tell North I said don’t yell at you.”

There was a shuffling noise on the phone. Luke’s voice was muffled as he started talking to North.

Silas’s palm fell onto the small of my back. I turned around and his hand remained on me as I looked up at him. He was grinning proudly, and mouthed, “Love the shorts.”

I gulped back my heart, trying to focus.

“North just threw a mug at me for calling you about it.”

“Would you give him the phone, please?”

“He doesn’t want it.”

Who was ignoring who now? I eyeballed Silas, who was tilting his head down at me curiously. “I think it’s time to zap him,” I said.

Silas lifted a brow. “Are you sure?”

What other choice did I have? I nodded. “Maybe it’ll calm him down.” It was a strange idea, but North needed someone to fight back with, and if he wouldn’t fight now, then he needed a little nudge. If it wasn’t supposed to hurt that much, then maybe it could work.

Silas grunted, turned to get his phone and pushed at the screen. “I have you for less than an hour and we’re already in the middle of shit.” He found North’s app, pushed it to open the screen, revealing four different colored squares. He pointed to the green one. “You want to do it?”

I twisted my lips, holding up a finger. Silas held up the phone while I hovered my finger over the green button. “Luke,” I said into my own phone. “Run for cover.”

“What are you doing?” Luke asked.

I pushed the green button, cringing when I did. I knew how badly it hurt and I didn’t want to do that to North, but he was acting crazy.

From my phone came a string of curses in the distance from North. Luke hollered back at him, something I couldn’t understand. Luke breathed heavily into the phone. “What did you do?”

“I zapped him back.”

“What?”

“Is he still yelling?”

“Yes,” Silas said, as he held his own phone to his ear. Silas moved to sit back in the tub, putting an arm behind me. I sat back, putting my head on his shoulder as I half listened to Luke scuffling on the phone and Silas talking to North on the other side.

“North,” Silas said, “no, she’s fine. Stop yelling at Luke. Stop yelling at me.”

“Swap phones? “ I asked him.

“Yeah,” Silas said, handing the phone off to me and taking mine.

“North?”

Heavy breathing into the phone. “What?”

I bit my lip, unsure. He did sound angry. “Are you mad at me?”

Pause.
“No.”

“Are you mad at Luke?”

Another pause. “No.”

“Are you mad at Silas?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

North grunted. “He shocked me.”

“No, he didn’t. I pushed the button.”

Pause.
“Oh.”

“Are you mad at me now?”

“Maybe.”

I half grinned. Maybe it did work. I looked up at Silas, watching his face as I spoke. “North?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you still like me?”

North grumbled. “Yes.”
Pause.
“Do you still like me?” he said in a quieter tone.

Was he trying to hide it from Luke? “Yes. Can you please stop yelling at people?”

“I guess.”

I said goodbye and hung up. Silas was already off the phone with Luke. I held the phone over to him. He took it and dropped both his and mine on a dry spot nearby. He turned around again. I put my head against his shoulder again, pulled my knees up to my chest, and wrapped my arms around my legs. Silas’s fingers dropped over the crook of my collarbone.

“I like my phone,” I said, “but could we not have them for a little while?”

Silas chuckled. He pressed his cheek against the top of my head. “Sorry,
Aggele
. All families have rules. One of ours is you have to have your phone on you all the time.”

“What’s the other rules?”

“Don’t get into trouble,” he said, and poked me in the ribs with a finger.

I grumbled, rolling my head against his shoulder. “I keep trying not to. It isn’t working.”

Silas stretched his free arm over his head, and flexed his legs in the hot tub. “Let’s just try to get through the evening without any more zapping.”

My hand absentmindedly moved to my chest, where I almost still felt the buzz of the electricity through it. I hoped North’s zap didn’t hurt him. I hated to think of how many times they were zapped or I’d done it without realizing it could hurt. Maybe it was different if it was in their pockets, but what if they were holding on to it?

We settled into a peaceful quiet, watching the game. Silas’s fingers traced along my collarbone. The football game switched into the third quarter. The tub bubbled and churned around us.

I started to get that stomach flipping feeling again. My cheeks heated up. I didn’t want to look up because I wasn’t sure I could look at Silas right now. His hand against my shoulder and my head on his arm, I stared at the game feeling highly sensitive again. The silence grew uncomfortable to me and I yearned to think of something to say that would break this feeling, but nothing sounded right and my mouth felt glued together.

The hot tub shuttered around us and the jets shut off.

Silas grunted next to me. “All right,
Aggele Mou
. Time to get out.”

I moaned. “Aw.”

Silas laughed, pulling himself away and standing, stretching and turned to look down at me. “You’re going to cook your insides up if you stay in too long.”

My eyes widened. Was he serious?

Silas climbed to get out. I turned, standing slowly and he reached for my hand to pull me out to stand next to him.

My head started to black out in a dizzy spell. I pushed a palm to my forehead as I wobbled on my feet. “Whoa,” I said.

“You okay?”

“Just a little dizzy,” I admitted.

“Did you eat today?”

I understood what he was asking, but I ended up simply staring at him as my brain was a big too foggy to remember at the moment.

Silas smirked at me and turned to fetch the towels. “When’s the last time you ate anything?”

“I had coffee this morning.”

“Nothing else?”

“Luke made me a sandwich at work. I’ve been busy.”

“That means it’s dinner time,” he said, tossing a towel at me. “I swear, girl, if I wasn’t standing on top of you, you’d die.”

I rolled my eyes, bending over to dry off my legs before I wrapped the towel around myself. Silas kept his eyes on me as I did, leaving me with my cheeks heated and my heart fluttered.

––––––––

S
ilas held our phones and his keys and I hung onto his shirt as we started out. Once we were outside again and weaving our way around the ponds and crossing sidewalks, I shivered against the coolness in the air. I clutched his shirt to my body to keep the breeze off. The sudden change from the hot tub to the cooler air dazed me enough to make me feel like I was sleepwalking.

Another guy walked along the path toward us. I wasn’t paying attention to him, instead looking around at the pond we were passing. Silas moved closer beside me, taking my hand.

“Yo, Si,” the guy said, sparking me out of my daze. “That’s your girlfriend?”

“Yeah,” Silas said, his fingers tightening around my palm.

I did my best to hide my surprise. Girlfriend? Why would he care to say it to a complete stranger? We did it at school. Did it matter to do so outside of there?