Immortalis - Book 1 (The Keeper's Immortals) (16 page)

“Morning sweetheart.” My mother said as just as I made it to the last of the stairs. Although I put on my normal grin I didn’t quite feel the same way as I used to. Knowing you’re adopted can defiantly change your perspective on things such as family. I wasn’t going to deny the people who had raised me but I couldn’t help but to hold some bitter feelings towards the people who had lied to me all these years.

“Morning mom.” I said as I sat in one of the two stools, next to my brother who didn’t even look over at me. Nothing had changed but now that I knew that I wasn’t really his sister it made more sense to me on why he never acted like I was really his family, like I was a stranger. He knew all along that I had been adopted because he was older than I was. Sean always cared about me, letting me borrow his car and celebrating the normal things families did together but other than that he didn’t seem to care for me outside of the house – acting as if I wasn’t around have the time unless I directly talked to him. “Morning Sean.” He looked at me oddly, giving me a semi-smile.

“Hey.” He said before turning back to his pop-tart and morning comic strips. He made me miss Jaryn.

Woofing down my cold cereal faster than normal, I then grabbed my book bag then headed off to school. For the first time I didn’t mind going to school. I wasn’t going to worry about what Adam was doing and I was just happy having a normal day. I was early enough to where she could even swing by the café to grab a cup of coffee. I waited in line for only a moment when I reached counter I was greeted by Charlie who seemed to be thrown off by my presents.

“Nora where have you been?” he said, practically barking at me like he was my father. I was shocked. I didn’t know what to say.

“What are you talking about?” I asked more than confused with what he was talking about.

“You’ve been gone for days, Trish has been worried sick. I mean she’s called your cell and nothing.”

“Oh I broke my phone but it’s fixed now, I’ve gotta go or I’m gonna be late. I’ll see you afterwards.” I yelled from the door. I was stunned at what had just happened. Not knowing what to think I ran off, hurrying to school I readily grabbed my books out of my locker and jumped as someone slammed their hand on the my locker door, closing it, luckily my hand wasn’t in the way. Trish had snuck up to me and didn’t look happy.

“Hey.” I said, trying to sound normal but by the look on her face she remembered that I had been MIA for a few days.

“Hey? All I get is a
‘hey’
after you’ve been gone for days? I couldn’t get a hold of you by phone or online. Where the hell were you?” Trish snapped throwing me back a little. Before she could say anything the first bell rang, signally class was to start soon. I told her that they would talk later and I had to go because I couldn’t be late for math classes for I would get detention.

Rather than going to class right I hurried outside where I was alone, I needed a moment to think and that’s when I realized what must had happened. The Keepers put the glam on my family but no one else. I was stumped on what to tell Trish, Charlie and anyone else that asked. Not being able to think of anything I just decided to avoid them both until she could figure out something to tell them or until they forgot but I wasn’t betting on them to do so. The day passed by and I was lucky enough not to run Trish and on the way home I skipped over going into the café like I normally would and hide in the comfort of my bedroom. Rather than doing my homework like I should have I passed out, not waking up until my cell phone vibrated. After rubbing the sleep out of my eyes I grabbed my phone and saw who was calling; it was Reid. He was the last person that I wanted to talk to. I just couldn’t deal with everything yet - the lying, the secrets I couldn’t tell, the history that I was a part of and the fighting between brothers.

I let the call go to voicemail. When the call finished I forced myself to listen to the message. “Nora I know I need to give you space after everything that has happened so I wanted to let you know that I’m leaving, I’m going back to Ireland for a while to try and patch things up with the family. If you need anything please call.”

The called ended without a goodbye.

That part alone hurt me in a way but I brushed it off. When I got up from the bed the sun was still up but barely. The days were becoming longer which means the seasons were changing. My school year was almost over, my senior year ending but it wasn’t soon enough for me. Now that I knew everything I wanted out sooner than expected that way I wouldn’t have to keep up the fabricated story of my life.

Days turned into weeks and those weeks where I didn’t hear from any of the Hollings, other than Sebastian to check up on me. Although I was lying to Trish and Charlie both I honestly didn’t feel bad about it because it wasn’t just a secret that I was keeping for The Hollings, it was a secret I was keeping about myself and I wasn’t talking to them much anyways. My cell phone was blowing up but I never responded. I didn’t know what to say to either of them about anything they were asking me about. The last thing I wanted to do was talk anyways, at least about my own issues.

After two weeks of being home I was approached by someone I never thought I would talk to again; Adam. “Hey.” He said as he walked up to me while I was sitting outside the school reading a book. I looked up in shock on seeing who was asking for my attention.

“Um hey, can I help you with something?” I asked him. He threw his backpack down next to me and sat with his back against the brick wall as mine was. I didn’t know what he wanted. He hadn’t talked to me in weeks and suddenly he was taking a seat next to me looking as if he wanted to talk. His sweet face was still sweet. His blond hair and blue eyes brightened my day suddenly – not in the way it used to, it was in a different way. Maybe, I thought, we could still have some kind of a friendship. If he was allowing himself to be pulled back in then I felt as if he was still invested enough to our friendship.

“Trish wanted me to talk to you. I mean were not even together anymore and I’m still being pulled into your drama.” He said with a laugh. I shrugged my shoulders towards his lame attempt at a joke to lighten the mood.

“You didn’t have to get involved.” I advised him.

“Yeah but I kinda had to, Trish was worried enough to actually beg me to talk to you because you won’t talk to her or Charlie. She’s freaked that she did something to piss you off or something.” Adam explained. I should have just talked to her because I knew that this was going to happen; Trish was thinking I was mad at her for something and it had nothing to do with her.

“Shit, no I’m not mad at either of them. I just…I’ve been going through some personal things and I wasn’t ready to talk about it.” I explained my actions hoping that he would take my excuse.

“Well if you’re going through something then who else is better for a girl to talk about things with than your best friend. She’s really upset. You should go talk to her.” Adam told me as he stood, throwing his bag over his shoulder.

“Thanks Adam.”

“And if you ever need anything you know I’m always gonna be here for you, even though I was total jerk. I shouldn’t have done what I did to you. I mean I shouldn’t have just broken up with you without talking to you more. Something more than just saying it’s over. We’ve known each other forever, we have too much history, don’t ya think?’ I could tell those words were hard for him to get out. ‘Friends?”

“Yeah, sure, why not?” I said although I hoped that this choice of being friends wouldn’t come back to bite me. After Adam had left I packed up my backpack and slowly but surely walked to the café where I knew Trish was working that afternoon. She had worked every afternoon since I had come back, I assumed to keep her mind off of me and my lack of communication skills lately. I couldn’t help but to pause for a moment just as I walked into the door, scared of facing her suddenly hit me. I could stand up to a crazed man welding a katana and all power immortals but I was afraid to face the girl who had been my best friend forever. “Can I get large mocha?” I asked her. Without looking up to see who was ordering, because she already knew she threw out a bitter remark. 

“No because we don’t serve people who dodge their best friend for a large amount of time.’ She said all while she was making the order without thought. ‘Here. It’s on the house.” She said, handing it to me.

“Can we talk?” I asked her hoping she would throw me and inch so I could take a mile like she normally did to me. She yelled to Charlie that she was taking a break then walked around the counter and outside to the side of the building. The empty alley hid us from the world so that we could talk in silence.

“So you sent Adam after me huh?” I asked, starting off the conversation knowing that it was my turn to start.

“Well you wouldn’t talk me, or Charlie? I mean I didn’t know who else to send in. Why have you been avoiding me?” She asked finally asking the only question she really wanted answered.

“After the last time we talked I found out something that I shouldn’t have, about me.” I confessed. She was waiting for me to say something more to my story when Charlie walked out to find her, interrupting me.

“Hey Trish we’ve custo…sorry, I didn’t know.” He said, apologizing as he started to walk back into the building.

“No wait, I brushed you off too and you should know. You’re the only other real friend I have so you should know too. The reason I haven’t talked to anyone was because I found out that I’m adopted.” I explained. Technically I wasn’t lying to them; I really was adopted only my family didn’t know that I knew. Trish suddenly rushed to my side, holding me and asking if I was okay and how I found out. “I found some paperwork in my dad’s office at home. They don’t know that I know so don’t tell them please but I just didn’t want to talk about it yet. I didn’t want to face it ya know?”

“We understand sweetie, oh I’m sorry that you have to go through with this but next time tell me. I’m your best friend.” Her words were killing me inside because I couldn’t tell her everything but I knew that I couldn’t. Even Charlie wanted a hug. He left us outside after a squeeze and that’s when I asked Trish if she had any news for me. She finally shot me a huge, cheesy grin. The same weekend that I had had my date with Reid, and all hell broke loose, she had finally agreed to a date with Charlie. He did what I said, took her out for Italian that wasn’t pizza and they had been seeing each other since. She was glowing like a silly school girl. She was happy and that made me happy.

The weeks slowly turned into months. More time had passed since I had had any contact with Reid, Blake or any of them other than Sebastian but our conversations were few and far apart these days. I was happy that I was attempting to move on even though I knew it wouldn’t last because of the fact that I had the katana still in the top of my closest collecting dust. Plus I couldn’t lie to myself, deep down inside I was still saddened by not having them in my life somehow. My heart was aching to be with them and honestly I wanted to know more about them, about me because in the end they were my real family. School finally ended, I graduated but after everything that I had gone through I suddenly wasn’t sure on what I wanted to do with my life. Going away to college was the first thing I had thought of because the idea of leaving the people who had raised me was an appealing thought but when I found out that Trish and Charlie were serious I knew she had also rethought her idea of going away to school. She chose to stay and go to the state college that was nearby and after much persuading I joined her in the fall. She knew that I was conflicted about something but she wasn’t sure what was troubling me nor did I tell her what was going through my head. Oddly enough she didn’t push me. Odd or not I was more than thankful that she didn’t.

Adam had also gone to school with us. He said that no matter what he knew who his true friends were, although through the years we all had our ups and downs with each other, and he wanted to stay close by. That alone warmed my heart but my heart could only be warmed so much because there was a hole that was only getting bigger with every passing day. While sitting in the park just off the campus with Trish and Adam I heard my phone ring but before I could pick it up Adam found it and questioned who was calling me with such an odd name; it was Sebastian. I suddenly felt that hole in my heart stop growing as I excused myself for a moment to take the call privately. “Hey.” I said cheerfully.

“Hello Nora, I’ve been worried about you. You haven’t called in some time.” Sebastian explained his concerns because of her lack of communication.

“Yeah I’m sorry, classes have been keeping me busy but I should always take time out to talk to you even If it’s for only a moment. Forgive me?” she asked in the same polite tone she always had with him.

“It would take something much worse to make me angry at you for too long my dear.” I didn’t say anything else for a moment and he knew why, I wanted to know how Reid was or that was what he thought I wanted. I mean I did want to know about Reid but through him I would find out about Blake as well and that was who I was true inquiring about.

“Reid is doing well. He and all of his siblings are doing much better than they were.” He explained.

“Even with Blake?” I asked. He explained that although their relationship still seemed strained at times for some reason, over all they were on better terms then they had been in years. That made me happy. The thought of brothers being together, like they should be rather than fighting, was something I found great pleasure in because nothing should come between family. We ended our conversation on a good note and I returned to my friends then joined by a few more that we had met from class, chatting it up like normal, like mortals.