Sense of Rumor (Mount Faith Series: Book 6) (12 page)

Arnella nodded. "Yes, I find the dating ritual to be tedious. Besides, I have never met anybody who was worth losing my head over."

"So how does it work for you? You just say hi to a guy that you like and then have sex with him?" Alric asked slowly, really interested in hearing her answer.

Arnella rubbed her nose and giggled. "I doubt women do that, except as a job."

"Then..." Alric had so many questions in his head about her. They were almost choking him.

"Are we going to watch the movie?" Arnella asked. She clutched the pillow in her arms, and he suddenly wished he were the pillow.

He nodded. "Sure."

They watched the movie, which was a tearjerker. Arnella was sniffing through the whole thing.

"Tell anybody you saw me cry and you are a dead man," she said when the final credits started rolling.

Alric grinned. "With that threat, I won't."

"So what about you?" Arnella asked after a long pause. "Why are you girlfriend-less?"

Alric shrugged. "I have a girlfriend; her name is Medicine."

Arnella grinned. "Tracy will be quite jealous to hear that."

"Tell me about Tracy. You guys seem to have a strange friendship."

"About Tracy." Arnella rubbed her forehead. "Let's see. She's beautiful, rich, comes from a healthy family background, has two older brothers, a banker for a father..."

"No," Alric shook his head, "I mean what kind of person is she?"

Arnella shrugged. "She is friendly, ambitious..."

"You like her, don't you?" Alric asked earnestly. "You must like her a lot to do the Arnella test on prospective boyfriends."

"Arnella test?" Arnella sat up in the settee. "What's that?"

"When Tracy likes a guy, she introduces you to them. If she likes them, you sleep with them to test their loyalty."

Arnella's slightly damp eyes were blinking at him as if he had two heads. "I have never done anything like that in my life."

Alric got up. "Tracy told me that you have done it with six guys already, and she cautioned me that I am the seventh."

Arnella lay back down in the settee, clutched the cushion even closer to her, and said weakly, "That's a shocker."

"What's a shocker?" Alric stooped down before her. "Talk to me."

They stared at each other and then Arnella closed her eyes. "Do you believe her?"

"I don't want to," Alric said. "I was so jealous today when I heard. I was just about getting over seeing you with those three guys at her party, and now this. I don't want to like you Arnella, but I can't help it. This feeling. It's confusing and crazy and exciting and dreadful all rolled into one."

"There is no Arnella test," she said quietly. She had no energy to defend her already battered reputation. "And I wished that you never told me how you felt about me."

Alric ran his finger over her downy soft cheekbone. "Why?"

Arnella's breath hitched at the contact. "Because I don't want a relationship. I don't want to care about you."

Alric leaned closer to her. "What about friendship, pure platonic friendship? I'll have to work this crazy feeling out of my system somehow. Maybe the more I get to know you, the more abhorrent you will become."

Arnella chuckled. "Okay. I can work with that; friendship it is."

Chapter Ten

Arnella almost missed her Computer 101 class on Monday. She had slept most of Sunday, and it had rained in the morning. She had not wanted to get out of bed. Besides, she was dreading going around anything with technology. What if she opened her email and saw another message with a video attached?

When she entered the lobby of the Computer Science building, she saw Kylie waving to her vigorously.

"I have class," Arnella said to her cousin, who was smartly dressed in a black suit. "Where are you off to?"

"I am off to Kingston to present a prototype of a new game Gareth and I developed. Before I forget, I spoke to Natasha."

Arnella sighed.

"I gave her your number. You had better talk to her about this. I also told Dad."

"What?" Arnella hissed. "Why'd you do that?"

"Because those louses who did this to you come to his university. Dad is going to be off the island for two weeks. He said he'll deal with it when he gets back."

Arnella hung her head. "My shame is complete."

"You have nothing to be ashamed about," Kylie said taking her hands gently. "You love to carry everything around with you too much. We want to help, okay? We are your family."

Arnella nodded and then swallowed. "Thanks, I guess."

"Natasha said she'd call you tonight." Kylie squeezed Arnella's hand and walked away.

Arnella headed to class, cringing inwardly at her uncle finding out about her being violated. She didn't like anybody knowing, but her uncle was another matter... that made her feel strange.

She slipped into the back of the lab, beside Saidie. The teacher was already there. She was handing out an assignment. Arnella took the paper from her and then signed onto the computer.

"You look better today," Saidie whispered to her.

She smiled. "Thanks, I am better…had an okay weekend."

Well, better than okay. She had hung out with Alric for all of Saturday night. They had talked and talked until Charlene had arrived home late in the night. By Sunday morning, she had decided that she definitely liked him. It was still a surprise to her that he was so down to earth and cool. She had even been tempted to show him her art collection. She never felt the urge to do that with anyone.

She clicked on her email and scrolled through. There was an email from Deidra about the progress of the bags and then there was one from a strange address: [email protected]. This time, it was entitled. "Bad girls can't hide." It had a video attached.

Arnella bit her lip. She would not open another one of them alone again.

"So do you know how to do basic programming?" Saidie asked her as she looked down on the paper. "Why do they have all of these weird commands?"

Arnella forced herself to focus on the paper in front of her but the mail was on her mind. Who could be doing this to her? She was sure it was the first question Natasha would ask. She thought about it all through class. She had David, Cody, and Jeff as the top contenders. David had admitted that they had done a video and destroyed it. How did they destroy it? Had they even destroyed it?

When class was finally over, she walked to the Business Center toward the Student Lounge. She started to panic, wondering who else had seen the video and what exactly was on it. She could vaguely remember details about that day. She sat down dejectedly in the middle of the courtyard. She had a session with Taj tomorrow but wished it were today.

"You are a hard sister to find," Vanley said behind her. He touched her on the shoulder warmly and then sat beside her.

"Vanley!" Arnella grinned.

"Don't act like you are happy to see me," Vanley said reprovingly. "I begged you to come hear me preach on Sabbath and you didn't."

"I was depressed," Arnella said. I just wanted to be alone. Besides, I don't like church. I have no idea why you like it so much that you are actually planning to spend the rest of your life as the head of one? It must be the craziest job in the world."

Vanley sat beside her. As usual, he was dressed semi-formally. She hugged him when he sat down and sniffed him. "You smell nice."

"You okay?" Vanley looked down into her eyes. He had in contacts and they enhanced his light brown eyes. As usual, those eyes were forcing her to tell the truth.

"No." Arnella shook her head. It always irked her that she could not lie to Vanley for long. "I am seeing a psychiatrist though. "

Vanley squeezed her shoulders. "Do you want to talk to your big brother about it?"

"Nah." Arnella shuddered. "It would feel too weird."

"Do you want us to tell Jesus about it?" Vanley asked her gazing down at her, a quirk to his lips.

"What? Now?" Arnella asked surprised. "There are people around."

"There is nobody near us." Vanley shrugged. "They won't hear us."

"I can't pray in public," Arnella said urgently. "Are you crazy?"

Vanley chuckled. "Want to pray in private?"

"No," Arnella said, getting uncomfortable. "What does Jesus know about me? Nothing. He doesn't care. I am not going to be talking to your imaginary friend called Jesus."

Vanley sighed and patted her hand. "Can you do something for me?"

"What?" Arnella asked cautiously. Her brother was known to be gently persuasive.

"I am not knocking your psychiatrist okay. I understand that the job is necessary, but here's the thing about my imaginary friend."

Arnella rolled her eyes.

"Whenever you feel burdened and depressed, just talk to him. Tell him your stuff, whatever it is... My imaginary friend will make you feel better, just by talking to him. Ask him for peace about your situation, and I guarantee you will get it."

"He can't do anything about my kind of stuff." Arnella shuddered. "It's bad and getting out of control."

"He can do anything." Vanley kissed her on her forehead. "Promise me you'll try it."

Arnella wiggled her eyebrows. "Okay, Pastor, I promise."

"Don't break the promise," Vanley said gently.

"I won't. I'll talk to him like I would talk to Taj."

Vanley smiled. "So, Taj is your psychiatrist?"

"Yup, I like him. It's been a week. I've been venting about my childhood and other stuff."

Vanley held her hand in his and squeezed them. "Your childhood sucked, I know. How is school?"

"You ask me that every time we talk, you sound like a father." Arnella grinned, "I am going to stay up here. Uncle Ryan already threatened me. I think school is great, fantastic…couldn't be better."

Vanley chuckled. "Great. Fantastic. That's overkill."

"You asked for it." Arnella laughed. "So how are you and the secret girl that you told me you were pining over?"

Vanley tensed up. "I am twenty-five, an intern pastor. I don't pine."

"Hit a nerve?" Arnella asked gleefully.

"Yup," Vanley said, "It is not going too well."

"Why. She blind?" Arnella laughed. "You are not only good-looking but caring and kind, and you love Jesus. That should be an instant win for her."

"She's fifteen years older than I am," Vanley said softly.

"May-December in reverse?" Arnella chuckled. "Who is she?"

"Not telling you," Vanley said. "Not yet. Not when things are so shaky. If only I could get through to her."

"So when she is forty-five you will be just hitting thirty." Arnella scratched her chin. "Sounds like an awful gap."

Vanley snorted. "I don't care."

"Oh man, I couldn't do it," Arnella said. "When she was in high school you were just being born…sounds sticky. Not too bad when it's the male who is older, but the other way around... I don't know."

Vanley shrugged. "She's the one I love."

"How do you know you love her?" Arnella asked. "What does this love feel like?"

Vanley looked at her. "You genuinely want to know, don't you?"

Arnella shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

"I woke up one day and I realized that she wasn't just in my head. She was now occupying my heart. I just want to be with her and around her all the time without reservation and without reason."

Arnella nodded. "I see."

"It's that simple and that complicated." Vanley patted her leg. "I have to go. I have a meeting."

Arnella nodded. "It was nice talking to you."

Vanley kissed her on the cheek. "Remember to talk to Jesus, okay."

"I'll remember." Arnella watched him as he walked away and then waited for the morose feeling that had been swamping her to take over again, but it didn't come back.

She looked at her watch and headed for the Biology Lab.

*****

"Hey friend," Alric grinned at Arnella as she headed out of the class.

"Hi," Arnella smiled with him, suddenly feeling self-conscious around him. They watched one movie, had one long talk about nothing important, and all of a sudden she was jittery. She was an honest to goodness wuss of a girl. She was starting to act like Tracy; though from what she heard on Saturday night, Tracy was a Judas. Acted like a friend and then told Alric those whopping lies about her.

"I was wondering," Alric said, when she walked over to him, "do you want to participate in a fundraiser for the hospital?"

"I don't get it." Arnella shook her head. "What fundraiser?"

"Well, the Medical Student Association, of which I am a part, has a yearly fundraiser in December, around Christmas time. We throw a party, invite the big wigs in the community, charge them a hefty fee for tickets, and have an auction. Proceeds go to the hospital. Last year we bought an MRI machine."

Arnella started shaking her head, "I can't be auctioned. Sorry."

"Not you silly," Alric grinned, "a painting of yours."

"How do you know that my paintings are any good?" Arnella frowned.

Alric grinned. "I don't. Want to show them to me?"

"I am not sure," Arnella said, feeling unsettled again. "Listen Alric, about this friend thing..."

"No, you don't," Alric stood up from his desk. "I am your friend, I need to find you abhorrent, remember? You agreed. So we are friends you can't just unfriend me."

"Why not?" Arnella grunted. "I didn't know friendships had rule books."

"They do," Alric said, "and as a friend, I demand that you have lunch with me today."

Arnella frowned.

"And every Monday and Wednesday for that matter." Alric inclined his head. "I am free those periods."

Arnella opened her mouth to protest and then closed it with a snap.

"Trust me," Alric said, laughing at her mutinous expression, "I make a great friend. You'll like me as a friend."

"Okay," Arnella threw her hand up in the air. "I doubt we have anything in common."

Alric grinned, "I am sure we do."

Chapter Eleven

Natasha called just as Arnella was preparing to go downstairs to paint. It was late in the evening, almost six. The evening had turned dark from about five-thirty.

"Sorry I took so long to call," Natasha said without preamble. "How are you doing?"

"Fine," Arnella said, "I thought you weren't going to call."