My Night Breeze (The Breeze Series) (21 page)

Audra settled at the empty table in the library in her usual spot. She didn’t hesitate to pull out her math assignment and diligently began working through the problems. With time, Chris and Stephen made their appearances followed by Molly, Ryan and Mateo. Ryan sat in between Molly and Mateo, making low conversation while Audra tried to focus on her assignment.

The mumbling between
Chris and Stephen slowly started to distract her. She glanced over towards them to shush them when she realized they were looking at her. They smirked before turning back to each other. Their creepy actions set her on edge until thoughts of the previous conversation with Stephen came to mind.

She made
a point of pulling out her history assignment when a voice spoke up.

“I take it you’re do
ing well in science?” Mateo asked.

“I’m doing okay. How’s art class?”

“The same,” he said.

Mateo showed
her a light sketch of an eye. Not as intrinsic as the one he did in his room, but it was still amazing. Audra wished she could go back to that day knowing all the things she did now. It would be effortless to spend time with him elsewhere, sneak him back to her room if she needed to. Their connection had been so start and stop that she wondered if that was the point. He wasn’t meant for her.

Dating wa
s supposed to be fun, not that she’d been on an official date yet. Relationships were portrayed as happy and exciting, but she’d never know until she had one. Unfortunately, having one with Mateo didn’t seem like a smart plan. When he left for his home planet, she’d be left here with only his human self. What if he was nothing like the Mateo that she knew? Would she even want to keep up the pretense of friendship afterward?

“Audra?”

She came out of her thoughts staring straight at Mateo. Blinking a few times did little to change the disappointment flowing through her. No matter what happened, she was going to lose him completely. Did she really want to keep spending time near him when it only caused further pain? All those intimate moments with him were a waste of time.

Pain started
to make itself known inside her chest as the thoughts made more sense. Without thinking about her actions, she tossed her belongings into her backpack, leaving the table in a rush. Voices called to her, but it was a lost cause. It all seemed to be a lost cause at this point. She should have known better. She’d done this to herself. Again.

Audra walked
quickly down the hall and into the stairwell when warmth at her back stopped her.

“
Audra, wait,” Mateo said from behind her.

“Mateo
—”

“
Look, just talk to me. What’s going on with you?” he asked.

“I just need space. I’ve got things going on that I need to focus on.”

He reached out, placing a hand on her right shoulder. She bit the inside of her cheek while keeping her eyes on the floor. He lifted her chin up to face him completely. The small gesture caused the pain in her chest to ricochet all over. His eyes searched hers with obvious confusion. He placed his other hand on her shoulder, sending a current of warmth down her arms for a minute before releasing her.

“Thanks.”

“Anytime,” Mateo said.

She awkwardly turned away from him and descended
the staircase. She didn’t have to look up to know he was watching her—she could feel him. Taking a deep breath, she pulled out her phone and called a friend for assistance. Luckily, it didn’t take long for Tobias to arrive. She climbed in the vehicle wordlessly as the tingles in her arms started to subside.

*****

“Another?” Tobias asked.

“Yeah, it’s so good
!” Audra said.

“It’s your fifth cup
. Don’t you want to have a bottle of water now?” Stephen asked.

“Nop
e. More soda, please,” Audra stated.

Tobias grabbed
her cup on a mission while Audra danced with Stephen and Chris. There was nothing like dancing away the annoyances of the school week. Chris didn’t mind sharing Stephen’s attention with Audra, leaving warmth around the trio. Happiness and excitement flowed through them along with the tempo of the upbeat music.

“Here you go.”

Audra smiled widely at Tobias. “You’re the best.”

He
joined the group dance, which allowed Stephen to give more of his attention to Chris. Audra chugged the last of her soda before making a face. A strange burning sensation tingled around her throat, but she dismissed it. One of the downfalls of carbonated beverages. Tobias pulled her close to him with a huge grin as the music slowed down. Audra didn’t hesitate to lay her head against him.

Closing her eyes, she relaxed
against him as his hands rested on her hips. The usual tension that riddled her body seemed to have faded away. It must be the comfort level of the friendship at this point; she couldn’t feel more content if she tried. Looking up into his light green eyes, a smile tugged at her lips.

“Tobias, you’ve been so nice to me. I can’t even begin to tell you how grateful I am.”

“You know that I’m here for you, no matter what.”

“Even with my past
? Knowing that I’m crazy?”

Tobias chuckled
. “You’re not so bad.”

“Says you.”

The doorbell rang causing Tobias to check the wall clock. He shook his head as he looked down to her.

“That must be Jim.”

“I better head out. I’m not supposed to be here and—”

“I know
,” Tobias said.

He went
up the stairs first to distract Jim. Audra waved farewell to her friends before escaping up the stairs and out the kitchen back door. The night seemed much darker, like a midnight blue with only a few stars to light the way. Tonight felt much easier to deal with. No stress or worries, just pleasant memories to hold on to. Even dancing with Tobias was fun.

Audra smirked
, thinking of the song from the party and skipped down the sidewalk until a familiar form caught her eye. She threw her head back with a huge laugh at the situation before skipping over to him. Confusion was clear on his features, which kept her giggling aloud. She tucked her hair behind her ears as she stepped in front of him.

“Night walking again?”

“No, I was on my way to see Ryan.”

“Was?” Audra laughed
.

“You okay? You’re not usually this hyper.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve got my reasons. Besides, you can’t be hyper and sneak in and out of places. That’s all we ever do,” she said.

Mateo took a s
tep closer, cupping her face as he leaned in. Fear instantly widened her eyes, unsure of his actions. Only after a few seconds did he pull back with narrowed eyes. She reached up tugging his hands from her face before stepping back for more space.

“When did this start?”

Audra shrugged her shoulders in response. Could she open up and tell him the truth about why she pulled away? Would he understand or just laugh in her face? He had no roots to keep him here. He’d just break her heart in the end. No reason to let him know about how deep her feelings for him had gone.

“I can’t believe this. You, of all people…”
he stated before turning away.

“Whoa, what are you talking about?”

“Don’t deny it, Audra. I can smell it on your breath,” he said.

She
cupped a hand to her mouth trying to smell whatever had him so angry, but she didn’t notice anything. Audra walked up behind him, tapping his shoulder, but he jerked away from her. The gesture stopped her cold in her tracks.

“Why are yo
u mad? Please tell me,” she asked.

Mateo continued
walking a few feet away from her only to turn back, furious. “Because you’re drunk!”

Automatically
, she shook her head denying it. “I only had soda. That’s it!”

Even as the words left
her lips, memories started to play. The warmth in her chest every time she drank it, the constant pushing of other alcoholic beverages from Tobias, even Stephen’s warning of how many she’d had tonight started to make sense in a tornado of hurt. She trusted Tobias. He was her friend. Why would he slip something into her drink?

The more she thought
about it, the more confirmation of the facts started to pull together. Hurt and frustration swirled together, but hurt won out hands down. Tears began to well up in her eyes as the betrayal started to settle in her mind. How could he do this to her? She trusted him with her past and everything.

Audra cupped
her mouth turning towards her home as hot tears spilled down her cheeks. She reached in her pocket trying to tug out her phone when a hand grabbed her right shoulder, stopping her. Mateo confronted her, but she wouldn’t look up at him, trying to wipe the tears from her face. He lifted her chin with his finger looking deep into her eyes.

“I
…I’m so sorry. I didn’t know,” she mumbled.

He pulled
her into a tight embrace.

“
I swear I didn’t know,” she croaked, tearing further.

“You’re okay, Audra.”

Mateo kept his arm around her shoulders as they walked towards her house. Once arriving at her front door, she turned to him and pointed up. He tilted his head in question.

“Will you come up?”

“I’m already running late…but sure.”

Audra unlocked the door and quietly took
off her shoes. The living room was quiet as well as the rest of the first floor. She tiptoed up the stairs to her room, quickly shutting the door and locking it. She unlocked the window and tugged it up just as Mateo reached the top. It hadn’t taken him longer than a few seconds to get inside. He swiped his hair out of his eyes as he tried to take in the dark surroundings.

Mateo reached
out for her hand, which she accepted. She sighed while leaning against his chest as he encircled her with his free arm. Just being in his arms relieved the tension within her. He rubbed her back soothingly for a few minutes before encouraging her towards the bed. She sat down, but he gestured for her to lie down.

“Time for bed.”

“You’re tucking me in?” she asked.

“Go on.”

She wasted no time in crawling under the blankets and settling in among the pillows. Mateo pulled the blankets up near her neck before brushing her hair away from her face. Even in the dark, his eyes pierced through to her soul.

He leaned
in close with a gentle whisper. “Get some sleep, all right? Text me in the morning.”

“Are you sure?”
she asked.

Mateo nodded
. “I want to see you tomorrow. ’Night.”

Audra agreed
while watching him slip out of the window and back into the night.

Audra greeted the morning with blurry vision and a minor headache from the night before.
The lies, the broken trust and unwarranted disrespect were more than she could bear. Unwilling to deal with the stress of it all, she collected something to wear and got cleaned up in the bathroom. Today was a new day, one she would be in control of. Her decisions were hers alone to make.

Not wanting to be pushy
, Audra took out her phone and sent a quick message.

When did u want 2 hang out?

She fixed her hair up into a high ponytail while waiting for a reply. It didn’t take long for the device to alert her.

Be outside in 30mins.

Shrugging her shoulders, she did a quick adjustment of things on her desk to appear more organized than they were. It seemed the nerves had her a bit jittery, but with everything that happened it was reasonable. Of all the people to notice her intoxication, let alone be the one to tell her, was almost a cruel joke and a slap in the face mixed together. That would be one of the first things to get sorted out.

She went
downstairs and almost tripped over herself noticing her dad reading the newspaper in the recliner. She couldn’t even remember the last time she saw him on a Saturday when he wasn’t either on his way out the door or coming back late. The newspaper covered his face, but it wouldn’t take much to arouse his attention. Especially if she tried to sneak by him.

The only way for her to
not bring attention to herself was to do her normal routine. Audra ducked into the kitchen, making a bowl of cereal for breakfast. A mental list started to write itself while she ate. Questions of how far he was on his mission, how things were going with his dad as well as how he was doing in general. As she finished up the meal, her phone alerted her to another message. She opened it while chewing.

I’m here.

K.

Cleaning up
the breakfast dishes only took a few minutes. Another positive check marked on the list of things to do as normal. When she went back into the living room, it was empty. Not wanting to risk a confrontation about her plans for the day, she slipped her shoes on as quickly as possible before slipping out the front door.

The
shiny black two-door vehicle waited at the curb adding confusion to the bewilderment upon her face. The windows were tinted so dark she couldn’t even recognize anyone inside. It took Mateo rolling down the window to convince her to take even a step in its direction. Audra checked her surroundings before slipping inside.

Th
e warmth from the heater engulfed her as well as the scent of pine from the hanging tree around the rear view mirror. Volume of the radio became a soft rumble in the background. She took in Mateo dressed in dark wash jeans and a red band t-shirt with a black hoodie. It made her cheeks warm as his eyes slowly took her in as well. Tugging on her seatbelt, she buckled up as he pulled away from the curb.

“Didn’t know
this car belonged to you.”

“I don’t use it
much. I’d rather walk,” he said.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Not too far. I just wanted to spend some time with you,” he said.

Mateo focused
on the road leaving an unusual silence between them. If he wanted to spend time with her, why couldn’t they just go for a walk? She watched houses pass by, not paying attention until he went up a ramp and merged onto the highway. A slow nervousness started to settle in but the reaction wasn’t called for…not yet at least.

“So…how are things with you?”

“It’s okay, nothing new to add. How are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m fine.”

“You sure about that?” he pushed.

“I don’t really want to think about anything other than today.”

“Avoidance won’t make it go away. And it won’t change what happened, Audra.”

“As long as you’re not mad at me about it
, then we don’t need to discuss it.”

His grunt
was his only response. She continued, “Where are we headed?”

Mateo would
n’t respond. She turned to face him, but he kept his eyes trained on the highway. Jim didn’t pay that much attention when he drove, but Mateo may have been new to this. She wouldn’t want to distract him for conversation, but the underlying feeling was that he was purposefully keeping quiet.

“Kidnapping is a serious offense, y
ou know?”

He lifted
one hand from the steering wheel to brush his hair out of his eyes but still said nothing. Apparently, he was going to play mime for the rest of the drive unless she relented. Giving in sounded too easy, but he did want to spend time with her. The least she could do was try.

“I don’t know what else to do about it other than cut them from my life. And I can’t do that because…they’re all I have.”

“What do you mean ‘they’? Who else is involved?”

“It started a few weeks ago. I had a rough night
, and Tobias made drinks. I think Stephen knew, but he gave it to me anyway. And ever since, Tobias kept plying me with it.”

Mateo shook
his head as clear frustration appeared on his face.

“I didn’t notice. I don’t drink soda often or at least I didn’t. There was no way for me to tell. I didn’t feel different.”

“Why do you think Stephen knew?”

“Something he said. He was counting my drinks. I found it strange
, but I was having fun dancing. Why would I ever consider my friends doing something shady?”

“Friends don’t do that to each other. Stephen is just as responsible as Tobias is, maybe more so. He should have told you.”

“I’ll talk to him later. There’s nothing I can do about it right now.”

He hit the turn signal
, pulling off the exit smoothly. She glanced around for signs of where they could possibly be headed but nothing stood out. The streets were lined with trees and a few buildings leading her to believe it was a small town center. Mateo took a few back roads until he pulled into a parking lot with a one story brick building.

Shutting off the e
ngine, he turned to face her while reaching out to grab her hand. The seriousness on his face made the nervousness rise. He gently ran his thumb reassuringly across the back of her hand, but it did nothing to settle her nerves.

“What are we doing here?”

“Remember how we went to the library a few weeks ago? We were looking for a building that had a fire. This was the closest place I could find. It might not be the right place, but the details seem close.”

“Mateo
, no, no! I can’t be here. I can’t…please take me home.”

“Relax, I’m not going to make you get out of the car or anything
, but I did learn something that we both weren’t sure of. You need to know—”

“I know already.” She looked
back at her lap. “I know that he’s dead. That I killed him.”

He clasped
her hand tightly within his own, bringing her eyes back to him. “You didn’t. He’s alive.”

“What?”

Mateo pointed to the glove box where she retrieved printouts. He flipped through a few pages, searching until he found the information he was looking for. He pointed it out to her before handing it over. She read the small paragraph with wide eyes. Could this be true?

“They called it an unusual occurrence of a
lightning strike.”

“It was storming that night
, and he did leave the door open, but that doesn’t explain how he caught fire. The only explanation would be the candle on the table, but it didn’t get knocked over…it didn’t budge. There’s no proof that this is even the right story.”

“You just did.”

He handed her a printout of the inside room. It looked exactly like in her memory—the small table with the chairs; the windows covered with finger-paint pictures; and the door leading to the outside. Even the floor was scorched where she saw him trying to roll out the flames. However, the sealed fate was that in the picture there was a lone candle still sitting on the table, just like she described.

Spending the afternoon riding around from place to place quickly ate up the time. The extensive amount of relief on her shoulders seemed to leave her weightless. She had been imagining herself a monster, but now that it seemed almost certain she didn’t do it, there was no way for her to come back down from the incredible high she was on. And she had no reason to want to.

The uplift to Mateo’s lips seemed constant the rest of the day until the ride
back. Audra discreetly glimpsed his face, enjoying the time they spent together. Setting aside the minor squabble from earlier, she couldn’t have had a better day. He seemed to evoke the purest calm and excitement from deep within her. If only she could do the same for him.

“What do you like to do for fun?”

“Draw, I guess,” he said.

“Anything else?”

“I enjoy walking at night. It’s the only time that it’s really quiet. I can dip in peace,” Mateo advised.

“Dip?”

“Uh…it’s kind of hard to explain.” He sucked his bottom lip in for a moment before sighing and rolling his eyes. “My memories from home. I can remember them vividly; almost relive them like it’s happening around me. And it’s like dipping into the past.”

“Do you do that often?”

“At first I did, but it only made it harder to stay. I left a lot behind,” he said quietly.

“Oh.”

The silence seemed to drag on, but Audra refused to break it. Any hopes of him deciding to stay had left her mind, but it was replaced with curiosity about what he did leave behind. What else was out there? She leaned towards the door, laying her head on the window, watching the trees and signs pass by in a blur.

As he pulled
off the highway and down familiar roads, sadness started to creep in. Reality of what she was coming home to started to make the sadness deepen as well as the anxiety. It wouldn’t be unusual to find Tobias hanging out at the house with Jim. The conversation wouldn’t be suitable for Jim to hear, but she wouldn’t be able to control anything that spouted out of her mouth at the sight of her ‘friend.’

By the time he pulled up to the front of her house, she could feel the scowl on h
er face. Home sweet home…it was not. The only reassurance was that Jim’s vehicle wasn’t parked in the driveway. There’d be no reason for Tobias to be here without him. Even so, her mood struggled to lighten up again.

“I’m driving to school on Monday
. Would you want me to pick you up?”

“Yeah. I had a good time today
. Thanks for taking me out.”

“Not a problem.”

*****

The smell of homemade cookies assaulted her senses after only a tiny step inside the doorway. Stephen waved her ahead into the kitchen with a tight smile. She hadn’t even said anything yet, but Stephen was obviously aware that something was up. It almost made her feel more aggravated. She decided to play along for a little while at least.

It was
little surprise to find Chris in the kitchen, but the mere fact that he was covered in flour with streaks of frosting on his cheeks did slow her down. If she weren’t annoyed, she’d have laughed out loud. It was easier to give a small chuckle on the inside and hold her cards close. Chris offered her a hug, but she declined vehemently, deciding to sit down at the dining table where it was clean.

Stephen grabbed
some water bottles from the fridge before placing them down on the table. Audra continued to decline, keeping her silence until they both settled down at the table. Chris took off his apron before sitting down and grabbing napkins to wipe his cheeks clean. Stephen unscrewed a water bottle to use to assist in getting the frosting off Chris.

“I can tell that you’re annoyed with me. I just don’t know what about
, so spit it out already,” Stephen stated.

“Tobias.”

“What about him?” Chris asked.

“The
spiked sodas.”

“
Oh. That. I can already see your feathers ready to fly, but chill out. Yes, I did give you mine that night of the movies, but you can’t blame me. You were so upset,” Stephen admitted.

“That doesn’t excuse your actions. You of all people should know that I don’t drink alcohol.”

“I know,” Stephen said sheepishly.

“Did something happen? Did he try
—”

“No
, Chris, he didn’t. But you’re supposed to have my back, protect me from the jerks who would do something bad to me. Instead, you watched it happen without warning me.”

“We were with you until you left. I didn’t expect
you to go home,” Stephen admitted.

“I know you’re mad at us
, but we never meant to upset you. We just wanted you to loosen up. You’ve been acting so ‘up and down’ lately. Thought a night of dancing and laughing would be helpful,” Chris added.