The Hidden (The Hidden Trilogy) (10 page)

Friday, August 28
th

That morning, I came out of my house to find Matt leaning against my car. I frowned and cut across the yard. “What do you want?”

“I’m catching a ride to school with you.”

I froze beside my car, the driver’s door half-open.

He smirked. “Aren’t you gonna let me in?” he asked, tapping on the window.

Alarms started ringing inside my head. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re looking at the newest undergraduate of Potomac Ridge University.”

I glared at him across the roof of my car. “You
didn’t.
”

“Oh, I most certainly did.” He tapped his finger on his chin, looking thoughtful. “As did Mel, although I’m not a hundred percent–”

“
What the fuck?
” I slammed my door shut. “
Why?
”

He sobered. “Mel’s adamant about keeping you in her life. Whether you like it or not.”

I gripped my keys in my fist. The cold metal digging into my palm was a good distraction from the urge to punch through my window. “You realize how childish and petty this is, right?”

He shrugged. “How else did you expect her to get your attention?”

Fuck me, he was right. If I hadn’t ignored her for so long it probably wouldn’t have come to this. I sighed and scrubbed my face with my hands, then opened my door and climbed in. After tossing my bag in the backseat, I leaned over and unlocked his door.

As he got in, I asked, “How’d you even get in? Late registration’s over.”

“It’s amazing what humans let you get away with when you throw large sums of money at them.” He grinned, back to his devilish demeanor.

The car roared to life as I started it. “You do realize I go to school with a bunch of humans. You can’t act all high and mighty around them.”

“Yes, I can. It’s called being a snob, Thomas.”

I frowned and pulled out of my driveway. “You know what I mean.”

He heaved an exasperated sigh. “Yes, I know what you mean. I can’t call them ‘humans’… At least not to their faces.”

I gave him a pointed look. “Damn it, Matt–”

“I
know
, okay? I have to be careful and act human at all times.” He looked out the window and lowered his voice, mumbling, “Geez, how hard can it be?”

Pretty damn hard sometimes.

I sped up as I pulled onto the highway. My hands gripped the steering wheel harder as I thought about how much of a colossally bad idea this was.

Matt’s quiet voice brought me out of my head. “I heard about last night.”

I tried to remain impassive, but I unintentionally flinched.

“Are you?” he whispered, as if speaking quietly would soften the blow.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I scoffed.

“Well…none of us has ever seen you with a girl.”

I shrugged. “You’ve never seen me take a shower, either. Doesn’t mean I don’t do it.”

Matt’s brow quirked up. “For somebody who says he’s not gay, that was an awfully gay analogy.”

“You know what I mean, smartass.” I glanced at him before returning my eyes to the road. “There’s actually this girl at school I kind of” –I swallowed– “like.”

“A
human
?”

I tried not to roll my eyes at the obvious disdain in his voice. “No, she’s like us.”

He tilted his head. “There’s another Healer at your school?”

I nodded. “Surprised the shit outta me, too.”

“What’s her story?”

“It’s…complicated.”

He laughed. “I get the message. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“It’s not–” I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. I might as well tell him. He’d find out eventually, and it’d be better if he was informed of the situation so as not to fuck it all up. “She doesn’t know.”

He frowned. “She doesn’t know what? That you like her, or…?”

“
That
, and she doesn’t know what she is.”

His face scrunched up in confusion. “How can she
not
know?”

“She was adopted by humans and raised as such. She has no clue.”

“How…?”

“I don’t know. My best guess is that she’s the product of a broken mating contract.”

He sat back with a dazed look. “Fuck.”

I nodded in agreement. “Exactly.”

“You gonna tell her?”

I sighed. “I don’t know. How can you tell someone something like that?” It would shatter her whole world. And that’s if she even believed me. I had a strong feeling she wouldn’t.

“She’ll find out eventually, regardless of whether or not you tell her.”

“I know.”

“And it’ll be much worse if you go with ‘not.’ ”

“I
know
.” I rubbed my jaw, feeling like I was about to rub my face raw. “I don’t think it matters much anyway. It’s not like we’re on speaking terms right now.”

“Why? What happened?”

I recounted our conversations and all my fuck-ups. When I was done, Matt looked grim. “You’re going to apologize again, right?”

I nodded.

If she’ll hear me out.

He slapped me on the shoulder right as we pulled into the student parking lot and grimaced. “I think it’s best if you did.”

I sat in Professor Rosso’s sociology class, waiting for Emily. I knew I should leave her alone. Our interactions had not gone well and she made her feelings about me perfectly clear, in no uncertain terms–she thought I was an asshole and she couldn’t stand me.

Knowing all that, though, I
still
couldn’t stay away from her. I could try, but my efforts would be in vain. She was like quicksand–the more I struggled to get out, the faster I sank. So I’d decided to give up and embrace the sink down.

There weren’t many people seated yet, and it was fairly quiet, so it was hard to miss the question, “Where is he?” coming from the back of the lecture hall.

My spine straightened at the responding, “Who?” that followed. It was Emily.

“You know damn well who I’m talking about,” her friend snapped.

I turned around, my eyes unerringly landing on Emily’s. She shivered and dropped her eyes, her nipples growing hard under her tight gray t-shirt.

They weren’t the only things becoming hard, I noticed, as I grabbed my jacket and dropped it in my lap. Neither one of them moved, so I gave Emily a quick wave, barely noticing the smile on her friend’s face.

She grabbed Emily’s arm and started towards me, whispering under her breath, “You
have
to introduce me.”

Emily appeared less than thrilled to be dragged over to me. I gave her a quick smile as they approached and did the first thing that came to mind: I picked up my stuff from the seat next to me and said, “I saved you a seat.” As long as her friend was here, I figured I actually had a shot at getting Emily to be civil with me. It was worth a try.

Thomas was
saving me seats
now? What the hell? My voice conveyed the same confusion my head felt. “Thanks?”

Beth tugged on my arm, an impatient look on her face.

“Oh, right.” I moved over a little so Thomas and Beth could see each other. “Thomas, this is my roommate, Beth. Beth, this is Thomas.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Beth.”

“The pleasure’s all mine,” Beth said, coyly smiling as she eyed him up and down.

I turned away from Thomas and faced Beth, desperately hoping she could read the look on my face, which clearly indicated how much I did
not
want to sit with him. Pointing to some seats further back, I said, “If you want, we can sit–”

“You know what? I think I saw someone I know up front. I’m gonna go see if it’s them, okay? I’ll catch up with you later, Em.” She waved at Thomas. “It was nice to meet you.”

“You, too,” he said.

Beth winked at me before she turned and left.

Awesome
. Beth probably thought she was doing me this huge favor, when in reality, I’d planned on using her as a life saver. Well, my life saver just tossed me back in the ocean while giving me the finger
.

I sank into the seat next to Thomas, making sure Beth was out of earshot before hissing, “
Why
are you doing this
?”

He frowned. “I’m sorry, okay? About Wednesday, about Monday…about everything.” He ran his hand through his hair, causing golden patches to stick up in disarray. “I just wanted to make it up to you.”

Yeah, ’cause you did such a
superb
job of that on Wednesday.

I rolled my eyes and dropped my bag onto the floor. “You’re an
ass
, you know that, right?”

He let out a long sigh. “Yeah, I know.”

I slapped my notebook down on my desk and opened it to a new page, then crossed my arms. “I already gave you a second chance on Wednesday, and we both know how that turned out. Why should I give you a third?”

His eyes were anguished. “Because I’m begging you to.”

“Why?” The question came out quieter than I’d meant. “So we had a couple fights, big deal. It’s not like we’re friends. You don’t have to make anything up to me.” I bit my lip, acutely aware of people taking seats all around us. “I just don’t understand why you care.”

He shrugged. “I just do. And who’s to say we won’t be friends someday?”

My eyebrows shot up in an incredulous expression. “Me.
I
say.”

He rolled his eyes. “You don’t know that it’ll never happen.”

I saw Professor Rosso preparing his lecture notes and used the opportunity to make my escape. “Yes, I do, because that would require me to
want
to be your friend.” I grabbed my bag, standing as he took the podium. “And so far, you haven’t given me any reason to.”

As the lecture started, I walked down the row, knowing Thomas couldn’t follow me without causing a scene.

Chapter Fifteen

I didn’t stick around to wait for Beth after class, just in case Thomas couldn’t take a hint. Hell, at this point it wasn’t even a hint–it was a flashing neon sign that read “leave me the hell alone.”

So when he sidled up next to me in the hall, I was a little surprised. “Oh my god, are you
deaf
?”

He grinned. “No.”

I frowned, clutching my notebook to my chest as I dodged passersby. “Then why do you keep bugging me?”

His lips pursed. “You’re very infuriating, you know that? And stubborn.”

“Likewise.” I glanced up at him, flashing him a sardonic smile. “Nobody said we had to do this. You’re the one pushing for…” For
what
, exactly? “…it.”

“I know, but that doesn’t change what I said. You’re still infuriating and stubborn.”

I stopped in the middle of the hallway. “Then why are you–” I shook my head. “Never mind.” His motives didn’t matter. I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “Can’t you just leave me alone?”

He lowered his eyes. “No.”

“Why not?” I demanded.             

“I just…
can’t
.”

Ugh, I’d had it with his little games! “That’s not–”

“You
need
me,” he said, lowering his voice.

My brows knit together as I stared at him. What did he mean I
needed
him? For
what
? My mouth set into a hard line as I crossed my arms. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He smirked. “I know. That’s why you need me.”

What the hell does that even
mean
?

I shook my head again. “I don’t need you.”

The smirk left him. “You will. And I’ll be here, waiting.”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, but I
don’t
need you, and I never will.” My skin burned as anger built inside me, like a volcano ready to erupt. “The sooner you get that through your thick skull, the sooner you can
leave–me–alone
,” I hissed, turning to leave.

He grabbed my wrist and pulled me off to the side of the hallway, backing me up to the wall as his arms caged me in. “It’s
you
who won’t leave
me
alone.”

I gaped at him. “
I’m
not the one who–”

“It’s true.” His gaze seared into me, pinning me to the wall. “I think about you far too much, and to be honest, I don’t like it…
You won’t get out of my head
.”

His declaration floored me. My mouth opened, but nothing came out. I closed it and dropped my eyes, glancing beyond the muscled arms boxing me in, to the sea of students around us. Time seemed to slow, the cacophony surrounding us fading from my ears. It was then that I noticed them.

Girls.

Most of the girls in the hallway were staring at us, some more openly than others. No, wait. Not us.
Him
. They were staring at Thomas. How had I not noticed it before?

Andy’s words ran through my head, and I knew it had to be true. Girls
did
throw themselves at Thomas. Constantly, I bet.

So why was he wasting his time on someone like me, who didn’t want anything to do with him?

Unless…maybe he saw me as a challenge. He said himself he couldn’t stop thinking about me. It was probably because I was the only girl on the face of the planet to ever tell him “no.”