The Knight Of The Rose (32 page)

“Now, close your eyes—and stay here.” I left her by my bed while I ran to the closet to get

the dress. “Okay...” I held it up against my body. “You can open.”

Emily’s eyes lit up. With her mouth open she ran straight over to me—well, to the dress.

“Oh, my God, Ara. This is perfect. Where did you get this?”

“I’ve had it for ages.” I shrugged.

“Can I try it on?”

“Of course, dummy, that’s why I called you. Here.” I handed her the dress and di rected her

to my wardrobe.

“I can’t thank you enough for this, Ara. I wasn’t going to go. I just haven’t found anything I

love enough to wear, but this—” she stepped out and her beauty struck me.

“Emily?” I couldn’t help but to hug her. “How perfect is this on you—oh, my God!”

She spun around slowly; shoestr ing straps sat delicately over her shoulders, holding the

fitted dress a touch off t he floor, while the low back scooped down, bunc hing together just a

fraction lower than the purple undies she wore toda y. I sighed enviously, folding my ar ms, because

the green made her honey-gold skin look like liquid satin.

“I hate you, you know. It never looked that good on me,” I said.

“Aw, I’m sorry, Ara. But I do
love
it,” she said.

“Well, then, it’s yours,” I said.

“Mine? Really? Ara, I can’t—”

“Yes, you can. I want you to have it. It was—” I shook my head, looking for the right words

“—meant for you.”

“Thank you.” She reached her arms out; I hugged her again. “I’m so glad we’re friends.”

“Me too. Come on—” I took her hand, leading her to the door, “—we have to show Mike.”

“Wait.” She pulled back a little. “Are...are you sure it looks good? I mean—”

“Em. It’s great. Stop worrying.” I stuck my head around the corner. “Mike?”

“Yeah?” He flashed a really sexy grin, stopping as he was headed down the stairs.

“What’d you think?” When I pulled Emily around the corner, Mike tilted his head to one

side.

“Wow. Yeah, that’s a gr eat dress.” With a fing er making circle motions in th e air, he

ushered Emily to twirl; she spun around. “I don’t know, Ara. Perhaps I’m marrying the wrong girl?”

Emily’s head whipped up; she looked at me, her mouth falling open. “Marrying? Did he say

marrying
?”

I shot a death glare at Mike.

As if someone had shoved a large rolled-up sock in his mouth, he stood stunned at his own

carelessness.

“Well, the cat’s out of the bag now,” I said, holding up my ring hand.

“Oh, my God,” Emi ly squealed deafeningly loud, grabbing my hand; Mike rubbed hi s ear

with his finger. “When did this happen?”

“Yesterday.”

“Wow.” She pressed both thumbs t o my ri ng, becoming seemin gly smaller from the

shoulders down. “And...what about David?”

I wished she hadn’t said that.

“He’s—out of the picture,” Mike said softly, but very politely.

Emily’s eyes said everything she was really thinking; “Well, that’s really great, Ara. I’m so

happy for you two.”

Mike, with a raised brow, jerked his thumb toward the stairs and wal ked a few steps

backward before fleeing with the speed of a man in trouble; Oh, wait—he is in trouble!

Emily closed my bedroo m door, then spun ar ound to look at me; “Ara? What have you

done?”

“I already told you, Em.” I sat on the bed, shifting Emily’s ja cket out of t he way. “David

isn’t for me. You knew this. Why are you so surprised?”

“Because, up until now I thought —” she looked down at the ground, “I t hought true love

would prevail.”

“Em—” I sighed. “David wasn’t the one for me.”

“Yes. He was,” she said with too much gravity in her tone.

“No. He wasn’t.”

She threw her hands up in the air. “I don’t know what to say to you, Ara. You know he
loved

you. That should be enough.”

“No. I’m sorry—it isn’t.”

“What else do you need? What couldn’t he give y ou? Kids? Is that all? Is that really all?”

She placed her hands on her hips again. “This is lu dicrous, Ara. I thought you’d get past this. He

loves you. Love! Do you understand that? Nothing else matters.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said softly. “It’s not just the kid thing.”

“Then what else is there? Please, just tell me?” She sat beside me.

“I want to. But David, as you
well
know, has secrets. It’s one of those secrets that’s keeping

me from being with him.”

She nodded. “I always knew there was something odd about him. So, what is it? What could

be so bad that you can’t be with him?”

I rubbed my forehead. “You’re missing the point of the word
secret
, Em.”

She breathed out. “Can
I
ask David?”

“Well, sure, but he’s not coming back?”

“Honestly, Ara—” She shook her head and walked over to my desk chair, then pull ed her

phone from her bag. “You’re so nineteenth-century sometimes.”

Hm, didn’t think of that.

Emily focused on the screen, pinning the number in, then held it to her ear.

If he answers this call, I don’t know how I’ll cope with being so close to him as j ust on the

other end of the line.

With my body completely stiff, I watched Emily tap her foot while she waited. “Jason?” her

voice rose in shock, her eyes widened. “Where is he?”

I didn’t know she even knew about Jason.

“Just tell me where he is,” she said, then went quiet. “Well, does he know what Ara’s gone

and done?”

Hey, I scoffed silently. I re sent that comment. I haven’ t
gone and done
anything at all. I’m

marrying the man I love, that’s it. Am I not allowed to try to be happy?

She bit her lip, breathing in through her nose. “She’s marrying him, Jason.”

I tried to force my br ow into a dismissive position to hide my obvious confusion at the way

she spoke to Jason—like she’d known him for years, or had, at the very least, met him before.

“Okay.” She shrugged. “He’s your brother.” She hung up the phone and looked at me; I felt

like a school kid in big trouble from the principal. “Are you leaving, Ara? Is he taking you back to

Perth?”

“Maybe,” I whispered.

“Oh, God. This is going to kill David. You have no idea what you’ve done, do you?”

“He knows. He said goodbye already.”

She shook her head. “I don’t believe that.”

“Well, it’s true. Look. Stay out of it, Em. It’s
my
life.”

“And I’m your friend. That means I get to tell you when you’re being a dumb cow!”

“Hey!” I scolded.

She looked at me with one brow slightly arched, her hands on her hips. “Ara. You’re being a

dumb cow.”

“No. I’m not. I’m being sensible. I’m doing what any normal, sane teenager should do.”

“That’s the point! Don’t you get it? You’re a
teenager
. You don’t have to make smart

choices.”

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Well, exactly. And I have the freedom to say and do stupid things because I’m young, Ara.

And so are you. And if you let love go now for reasons only an adult would care about, you’ll regret

it for the rest of your life.”

“What would you know about regret? You’re the same age as me.”

She looked down at her feet. “I have my regrets.”

“Yeah, well, for me, David won’t be one of them. It’d be worse if I stayed with him.”

“What is wrong with you?” She tossed her phone onto my bed. “Do you need a brain scan or

something? It’s David!” She waved flat palms at me. “David
freakin
Knight, Ara, not just some

random guy.”

“Just stop it, Em. Okay!” I thru st my body forward a li ttle, tightly holding back tears. “He’s

gone! He’s not coming back, and I don’t want to talk about it!”

“I’m sorry.” She shrunk back. “It’s just. You guys were happy once. You don’t look happy

to me anymore.”

“I am.”

“Coulda fooled me.”

I held my scowl for only a second longer un til the look on her face forced me into laughter.

I’d never seen her look so serious. Her lips twisted up under smiling eyes, then she released the tight

hold and let herself laugh, too.

“Do you realise, we just had our first fight?” I said.

“Yeah.” She slumped back down on the bed. “And it was over a boy.”

“Erk,” I said, rolling my eyes, “we’re so normal.”

She sniffed once and, keepi ng her eyes on the carpet, said, “I am sorry, Ara. It’s not my

place to interfere, I just—”

“You care?”

She nodded. “I don’t like him.”

“Who?”

“Mike.”

“What? Why?”

“I don’t like how he calls you
baby
and
girl
all the time.” Her nose crinkled. “Don’t you find

it degrading.”

“Why would I?” I shrugged. “He’s not trying to control me or own me by using a pet name.”

“But you’re not his pet. That’s just the point.”

“And he doesn’t treat me li ke a pet, either. It’s a term of endearment. I, unlike you, have an

appreciation for verbal affection.”

“Ha. You sound like David.”

“I do?”

“Yeah. He says stuff like that all the time.” She softened. “Er, well,
said
.”

Said, huh? So, now David’s past tense, too
. I shrugged. “Guess he was starting to rub off on

me.”

“Guess so.”

“It started out as a way to tease me, you know.” I smiled at a distant memory.

“What was?”

“
Baby
. The way Mike always calls me baby. It started because he was always faster,

stronger and smarter than me. No matt er how hard I tried, I could never beat him at any game or

race or anything. So I’d sulk.” I shrugged agai n. “He’d always call me a baby, then, after a

while, he just started saying it after pretty much everything he said, until one day it changed—there

was a warmth behind the word that hadn’t been there before, and I—” I smiled, “—I kinda liked

that. I’m the only one he ever used terms of endearment with. It made me feel special.”

“I guess I know what you mean. We kind of let almost anything go when they make us feel

special, don’t we?” Em twiddled her fingers in her lap. “I used to think David...” she bit her lip and

seemed to hiccup her words to a stop.

“David what, Em?” I leaned around to look at her face.

“Nothing.” She forced a smile and stood up. “B ut, let the record show; I don’t like Mike. I

don’t think he’s good enough for you.”

“But he is good for me.”

“They’re not the same.”

“Are in my world,” I scoffed. “So, anyway, how do you know Jason?”

Emily stiffened, going a little pale.

“Oh, now you
have
to tell me,” I said, pointing at her.

With arms dropped to her sides, she turned away and walked over to my window, heavy, as

though gravity had gifted her with iron legs.

“Em, are you okay?”

“It’s nothing, Ara. Really. It was just a summer fling—it ended.” She braved a glance at me

as I stood beside her, but her fake smile didn’t hide her tears.

“Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,” I said.

The corners of her lips twitched, turning downward. “I fell in love with him.”

“Love?”

“Mm-hm.” She wiped her nose w ith the back of her wris t, nodding. “We dated for the

summer and then, when it got cold and the fun of the sunshine disappeared, he just left.”

“Left? As in—he moved, or he just didn’t come back?”

“Just gone.” She stood back, wiping her face again. “Without a goodbye—without anything.

David was my only link to Jason. He was the only one who was there for me when it all fell apart.

And you giving up on David, when all he wants is to keep you—I feel like I’m losing Jason all over

again.”

“So, you never even spoke to him again—to Jason?”

“Can you hear how fast my heart is beating?” She touched her chest. “That was the first time

I’ve heard his voice in nearly a year.”

“Why did he leave? Did he say anything before…?”

“No—that was the worst part. We were so happy, and then, all of a sudden, he just left—

never spoke to me again. I tried to ask David, but he said it was just the way his brother is, and that

he’s sorry.” Emily sighed and looked away. “He was good to me—David, when Jason left me i n

pieces. David was a really good friend. I don’t want to see him hurting, and I
know
he’d be hurting

right now.”

“Emily,” I started cautiously, “did Jason ever seem a little strange to you?”

“Strange?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know—it doesn’t matter. Look, I’m sorry he left you, and I know it

sucks that I get the...the one that would’ve stayed, only to leave him for another man, but I can’t be

held responsible for what Jason did to you.”

“I know. I’m sorry, Ara. I didn’t mean to project my issues into our friendship.”

“How analytical of you.” I giggled a little. “You sound like my step-mum.”

“Sorry. I took counselling over this. You learn a thing or two.” Her brown eyes glistened

under her smile, making her green dress the perf ect colour for my emotions; jealousy. She just

looked so fragile and feminine when she cried. I could never look that good when I cried.

I wanted so badly to t ell her the truth about Jason and David—to make her feel better about

why he lef t her—but I cou ldn’t. “What was Jason like?” Aside from, what was it David

said?...Malevolent. “Was he sweet, like David?”

The fold of Emily’ s brow flattened and her lips turned into a warm smile. “Sweet, like