Push and Shove: The Ghost Bird Series: #6 (The Academy) (38 page)

Gabriel’s back shifted slightly as his breathing evened out. At some point, he flopped over, an arm wrapping around my waist.

It was still several hours before I managed to catch any sleep.

––––––––

I
woke when it was still dark but was unable to go back to sleep. I thought I’d had a dream, but I couldn’t remember what it was about. Maybe that was better. My dreams weren’t so bad when I was exhausted like this.

I was still staring through half open eyes at the wall when dawn finally arrived. No word from Nathan or Luke.

The air was crisp and the more I shivered, the more Gabriel snuggled into me. He stayed asleep, though. He hummed on occasion, some unknown melody. He must have been sleeping pretty deeply.

But I luxuriated in the quiet moment with his arm around me, his palm at my hip. His legs were resting over my ankle. His chest was against my back and his breath warmed the skin at my neck. He was so comforting. I didn’t dare move. How bad would it be if we moved out and he could sleep nearby? Or just like this.

The house was quiet. I wondered if Marie was even home. Part of me was dreading she was, and that Danielle was with her. I still couldn’t stop wondering if maybe Danielle and Nathan were right when they said I should leave, and last night told me more than ever that perhaps they were.

Now Nathan wasn’t safe. Wouldn’t it be easier if he and I left? I’d eat all the time. I’d sleep when I was supposed to. I’d happily work endless hours at the diner to never see Nathan look the way he had last night. Defeated. Lost.

An hour later, there were footsteps in the hall. From the tread and the sound of the shoes squeaking against the hardwood, I knew it was one of the boys.

The door opened. The air shifted. I wanted to get up, but I was as tired as I had been the night before and couldn’t find the energy to get up.

Black slacks and the start of a crisp white shirt came into view. A moment later, Victor crouched beside the bed, staring at me. Locks of his wavy brown hair shifted in front of his dark fire eyes. His head tilted, checking my face. I moved a tiny bit, blinking up at him.

“Hey, Princess,” he said quietly. “You okay?”

I nodded stiffly. I hadn’t been crying, but my eyes were cold and my throat was thick as if I had. My body felt like a rock. I didn’t want to move and wasn’t so sure I could.

He sat down on the edge of the bed. The sleeves on his shirt had been rolled back and showed off some of the lean muscle. His fingers reached toward me and he shifted a few locks of hair aside from my cheek. “Heard you had a rough night last night.”

I swallowed to clear my throat. Nathan was more important. “How’s Nathan?”

Victor pursed his lips, breathing in heavily through is nose and letting it out slowly. “He’s okay. Still at the hospital with Dr. Green.”

“His dad?”

“He’s alive. He hasn’t woken up yet though.”

My tired mind took a moment to process this. That didn’t sound right. Was he in a coma? “Is Nathan in trouble?”

“It was self-defense,” he said. He nudged me a little. I slid back as far as Gabriel would let me. Victor lowered himself until he was on his side next to me, and propped his head up on his arm. “Luke was there to testify for him, and Gabriel can vouch, but Luke’s and Nathan’s word was enough.”

“What’s going to happen now?”

Victor traced a finger across my cheek. His eyes followed his finger. “The first step is to get Mr. Griffin to wake up. We’ll have to deal with the results after.”

I breathed in deeply, stretching and shifting. “Nathan was worried this would happen. He’d hit him and kill him.”

“If he doesn’t defend himself, his dad could kill
him
.”

“What are we going to do?”

The fire eyes simmered. “We stick together,” he said.

Gabriel sniffed heavily, stretched. The arm around me tightened and he pulled me into him. “Dude, I love you and all, but shut the fuck up.”

Victor smirked and then tugged at my shoulder. “Let’s go talk downstairs,” he said. He started to sit up and then focused on the soft pajama top I was wearing. “Oh you found these? You like them?”

“This shirt?” I asked quietly, trying to be mindful of Gabriel.

“Yeah. I saw it and I thought you’d like it.”

“You mean from that one time we went shopping? You remember this shirt?” I didn’t remember him saying anything in particular about it. I didn’t even remember the shirt.

“No,” he said. “I brought them over the other week.”

Gabriel snapped upright. He rotated toward Victor, his crystal eyes alive and sparkling. “You’ve been buying her shit?”

Victor’s eyes widened and his head rocked back. “Just a few things.”

“What?” Gabriel said louder. He shoved the blanket aside and got up, looking a little wobbly on the carpet. He had on a T-shirt and a pair of pajama bottoms I thought were Nathan’s. His hair was messy from the pillow. He turned, and found the pile of clothes we’d carried from Nathan’s house sitting on top of the bookshelf. He fingered through them. “They’re all from Victoria’s Secret. You went back?”

Victor shook his head. “No. I’ve been getting the catalogs. They send a ton to your house when you shop there, I guess. And then I checked the website and...”

Gabriel smashed a palm at his cheek and rubbed. “Christ. Okay. No more buying her clothes.”

Victor’s eyebrows twitched together. “She likes them. She’s been wearing them. It’s what she picks out for herself. I just got her a few more things. You know, because it’s getting colder.”

“No, I mean, some of the things she’s been wearing don’t fit.”

Victor turned his eyes to me, the fire lit to a playful flicker. He smirked. “Looks good to me.”

Heat rose through my face. He’d been buying clothing from catalogs just for me and bringing them quietly over to Nathan’s house. No wonder a lot of it looked new and I didn’t remember them. From what I could remember, those clothes were really expensive. “Victor...” I said, wanting to suggest he didn’t have to.

“She’s too skinny,” Gabriel said. “They’re falling off her. Her ribs stick out.”

“They’ve always stuck out.”

“Not this bad. She needs to eat.” Gabriel shoved his hand over his face, sliding his thumbs across his eyes to rub out the sleep. “And we didn’t eat last night. Shit.”

“She can eat now.” Victor stood up, reaching for my hand and tugging me to stand up.

I did, but too quickly. Blood rushed from my head and I leaned into Victor as I swayed. The room spun for a moment and a blackness washed over my eyes, threatening to take me down again.

Victor caught me around the waist. “Whoa. You okay?”

I was going to answer, but Gabriel was on me in a flash, grabbing around my stomach and helping Victor hold me up. I was squished between their chests. “Don’t you faint on me again,” Gabriel said.

“I’m okay,” I said. The lightheadedness was fading quickly. “I just got up too fast. It happens.”

“Because you didn’t eat,” Gabriel said. He backed up a step but pushed fingers to my neck, checking my pulse. “And the stress.”

“Let’s go eat breakfast,” Victor said.

I followed the boys down the stairs. Marie’s room was quiet as we passed.

In the kitchen, Gabriel opened the fridge door, peering into the shelves. Victor scoped out the pantry and some of the cabinets.

“We should make her eggs and like pancakes or something,” Gabriel said. He tugged out a carton of eggs and opened it up. There were only two left.

“Are you cooking?” Victor asked him. “Luke usually makes the pancakes. Or Erica.”

“Let’s go to Kota’s,” Gabriel said.

“No,” Victor said. “He’s got that tail watching the house still.”

“All night? Goddamn nosy bastards.” Gabriel shoved the carton back into the door and snatched up three bottles of Frappuccino. “Coffee and toast for us. I can fix the shit out of toast.”

“We could go out for breakfast,” Victor said.

“Not right now,” Gabriel said. “Maybe for lunch. We’re supposed to be lazy. Pajamas until noon and all that. Maybe we’ll order pizza early.”

There was only half a loaf of bread left, but Gabriel started heating some up in the toaster. Victor snagged me around the waist and then lifted me until I was sitting on the counter. He hopped up, sitting next to me. He popped open one of the Frappuccino bottles and handed it to me.

“How was dancing?” Victor asked.

“Awesome,” Gabriel said before I could respond. “You should have gone with us. Although Nathan was trying to kiss the shit out of her right in front of my face.”

Victor and I both popped our mouths open at the same time. Our eyes connected, his a fiery curiosity. “Is he serious?” he asked.

“Of course I’m serious,” Gabriel said. “He makes a big fucking deal about not kissing her in the car when she’s the one that started it, and then he up and starts kissing on her the moment Luke and I were out of sight. I think he’s been adamant about it from the beginning because he’s been hoping to snag her first.”

“You kissed Gabriel and Nathan last night?” Victor asked, with the strangest smile on his lips.

I nodded slowly, unsure how to deny it or even if I should. My heart pounded inside my rib cage. My finger lifted, hovering just over my lips.

Why did he look so happy with this?

Victor’s eyes lowered. He touched my collarbone and then traced up to my neck. “Is this your handiwork, Gabe?” Victor asked.

I clamped my hands down over my neck. The makeup! I didn’t know how the bruises looked by now, but they wouldn’t have disappeared overnight.

Gabriel looked up from buttering some toast for a moment. “Maybe a couple. North did the rest.”

Victor paused in his inspection. His fingers idled over my neck. “Did you talk to North?” Victor asked.

“Haven’t seen him since yesterday. He only dropped her off.” Gabriel licked his fingers clean of crumbs. He passed the plate to me. “Eat this.”

Victor released me and raked a few fingers through his wavy hair, pulling it back from his face. “We should probably talk to him.”

Did he not realize what the marks were? Did he already know they were bites? I thought if he did, he would have asked. And why did we have to talk to North? Was this important? Was it about the Academy rule? My heart was pounding way too hard right now when the rest of me was so dead tired. I didn’t have the strength to formulate the questions I needed to ask.

“No shit.” Gabriel stuffed two more pieces of bread into the toaster and stood back to wait. He crossed his arms over his chest, leaning against the counter. “And if anyone was worried about her reputation at school before, she’s in for it a lot if he’s going to make her look like that. She’s lucky I found out.”

“This is bad,” I said quietly. I needed to do something. The Academy was going to find out, and then North would get into trouble. And then the others ... I hadn’t even thought of school yet.

“No, sweetie,” Victor said. He tugged at my hand and then kissed the back of the knuckles. “We just need to be careful.”

How? I didn’t even know what I was doing. But first thing I knew I needed to do was keep the secret as secure as possible. “I should cover them up before Marie or Danielle walk in,” I said.

“Good idea,” Gabriel said. “Or Kota. He’d kill us.”

“Or Mr. Blackbourne. Or Silas,” said Victor.

Gabriel grunted. “Are they kissing her, too? Who the hell isn’t kissing her? What the fuck are we doing here? Passing her around?”

“It’s not like that,” Victor said.

“Sure feels like it,” Gabriel said. He turned those crystal eyes at me. “Trouble, go cover your neck really quick and then come back and eat.”

This sounded more like he needed to say something to Victor. The tension hung in the air like the smell of toast around us.

I hopped off the counter and ran all the way up the stairs to my bedroom. Maybe I should have said something, or insisted on staying, but my heart couldn’t take trying to figure out what all this meant. I was willing to step back and let the boys figure this part out.

Maybe Gabriel and Victor would be able to piece together what had been going on, and then tell me what I needed to do. I cared about them. All of them. In an effort to stay with them, to feel a part of something when I’d been lost, something changed in me and I felt it echoing in each one of them when I was with them.

At first, I’d thought it was that family feeling that Kota was stressing would happen. I let it happen, doing whatever they told me to do. I trusted them to know.

Now with Nathan and everything else going on, trying to figure out kissing and boys was terrifying. I wanted someone else to figure it all out for me.

Coward.

Still, my heart was breaking. I was terrified they’d figure out I was doing this all wrong and we’d have to go back to what we were before. Holding hands. Hugs. I wanted those, but I was on the cusp of something better. Something my insides had been craving and I didn’t know until one of them had pressed his lips to my skin.

I waved off the thoughts. The moment I was upstairs and out of view, I wanted to hurry and get back downstairs with them.

This was how bad off I was: too terrified to talk to them and too scared to not be with them.

I stood in my bedroom for a moment, trying to recall where Gabriel had left the makeup last night. When I finally focused, I realized he’d left it in the bathroom.

I crossed the hall, and found the door locked to the bathroom.

I paused, listening. The air was still. The shower wasn’t running. If she was in there, she would have heard me.

I knocked gently. “Marie?”

Silence. Eerie.

I knocked again, louder. “Marie?”

Still nothing.

I returned to my room, found my phone in my bed and went back to the hallway. I paused, gazing at the button that would allow me to look through the cameras of the house. I didn’t want to snoop. Maybe the lock was snapped by accident. I just didn’t want to break in if she was doing something and ignoring me.

From my past experience, I didn’t trust silence.

After the loading screen faded away, I studied the image. Odd because there was someone inside, but she was lying on the floor, unmoving. I saw legs and hips only, and they were so still. The camera didn’t extend that far.