The Pull of Destiny (11 page)

I pulled on my
jeans and my t-shirt, splashed my face with water from the sink and rubbed it
dry with a towel.

As I was
staring at myself in the mirror, thinking about the mass in my brain which was
causing my headaches, a noise from the room made me start, and then I relaxed.
It was probably the over-eager nurse.

Buckling my
belt, I stepped out of the bathroom, the gown crumpled into a ball in my fist,
only to spot a pair of legs disappearing under the bed. Very strange.

“There’s no
money under there, I already checked,” I said, a grin on my face. What the hell
was she doing?

“I wasn’t
looking for- I was just getting this ball for a kid- I’m sorry,” a soft voice
said.

That was
definitely not the hot nurse. In fact, it sounded a little bit like-

“CiCi?”

But what the
hell would CiCi be doing under my bed? She wouldn’t even accept my apology!

“Luke?” the
voice under the bed said.

Yup, definitely
CiCi.

I threw myself
onto the bed, scooting over till I was leaning over the other side, my hair
sweeping the floor. As my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I found myself
looking upside down into CiCi’s face. The scared look on her face made me grin,
forgetting about the aneurysm for a second as I looked into her wide hazel
eyes.

 “We really
need to stop meeting like this.”

CHAPTER 6

forgive me
.

Celsi’s
Point of View

There had to be
a reason that Luke and I kept running into each other. Yet, as I scrambled out
from under the bed, gripping the accursed ball that had steered me into Luke’s
path, I couldn’t think of one.

He was lying
down on the bed, his arms propped behind his head, staring at me through half
lidded eyes. “So what are you doing here?” he drawled, covering his mouth as he
yawned.

Oh, don’t
let me keep you from sleeping.

I had to leave,
and fast. Miss Campbell was probably freaking out right about now. I kept my
ears pricked for screams of rage (Miss Campbell) or screams of pain (everyone
else in the daycare).

“I came in to
get this,” I replied, holding up the bouncy ball. “It rolled under the bed.”

This boy is
way too fine to be so dumb.

Because I
specifically said I was here for the ball when I was under the bed. Otherwise,
what would I be doing loitering in one of Mount Sinai Centre’s private rooms?

“No, I mean
what are you doing
here
, in the hospital,” Luke amended. He propped
himself up on one elbow and I frowned as he winced slightly.
Something’s
wrong with him
. But that wasn’t my business. Not getting fired, that was my
business. “Are you stalking me?”

I rolled my
eyes to the ceiling. “Luke,
you
are the one who followed me to the music
studio yesterday. If anything, I should be asking you that,” I said, my hand on
my hip.
Ha! Indisputable argument!

He grinned,
that damned dimple popping into view again as I stood by the foot of the bed.
“Okay, maybe that wasn’t the right thing to say,” he said, yawning again.

I nodded. “You
seem to have a knack for saying the wrong things,” I said snootily, summoning
my inner Shazia.
What would she do in a situation like this? Would she be
nice? Rude?
I had no idea. What was I supposed to do? Accept his apology?
Would he even apologize? How was I supposed to think straight when he had that
cute smile on his face?
Focus!
“I work here.”

See? That
wasn’t so hard-oh crap, he’s smiling again.

“You work at a
hospital?” Luke laughed, squeezing his eyes closed as I glowered at him.
What’s
so bad about working in a hospital?
“Why would you choose to work at a
hospital? Are you a doctor wannabe? A nurse in training?”

“No,” I
replied, feeling somehow defensive. “I volunteer at the daycare.”

Snorting with
laughter, Luke sat up in bed, resting his head on the headrest. “
A daycare?
Why the hell would you want to volunteer at a daycare? That’s even worse!”

Why do people
hate on daycares? Everyone was a kid once, too!

“It’s my
community service.”

“Yeah? I only
logged like two hours of my community service,” Luke replied, running a hand
over his face.

I’m not
surprised.

Another snort
of laughter. “What? Why?”

Crap, I said
that out loud. Again.

Biting my lip
nervously, I said, “You just- don’t seem the type to give back to the
community.”

Talk about
digging myself deeper! But Luke didn’t seem to mind me insinuating that he
didn’t care about his community. “I do too give back,” he protested, rubbing
his chin lazily. “I recycle- and stuff.”

“Cool,” I
muttered, slowly backing away from the bed till I was standing by the door, my
hand on the handle, ready to make a run for it.

“So, okay,
we’ve talked about why
you’re
here,” he started hastily, seeing me about
to leave, “and good job, by the way, I bet the kids love you.”

He winked at me
and I sighed silently.
There’s that charm again.

“I guess they do,”
I replied. Even though if I didn’t leave and right now, I would never see any
of them again. Miss Campbell was harming them right now, I was sure of it.
“Anyway, I gotta-.”

“Don’t you
wanna know why I’m here?” Luke cut in, pushing his hair out of his eyes with
both hands.

“No,” I
answered, shaking my head to prove my point. I wasn’t being rude. I had to get
back to the daycare before things fell apart.

Luke pointed a
finger at me. “You’re still mad at me,” he said in a sing-song voice. In spite
of myself, I smiled. Were we little kids again?

“I’m not mad at
you,’ I said honestly. In truth, I didn’t really feel anything about what had
happened the other day. Just- empty. I had pushed it to the back of my mind,
where I wanted it to stay.

“I couldn’t
find all your pencils,” he started, shrugging. “I tried but – I borrowed way
too many.”

“Well, that was
the condition. No deal,” I said, wondering if he really had looked for my
pencils or if he was just saying that. Then again, he
had
found my polar
bear pencil. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. But I couldn’t stay to ponder
the many mysteries of Lucas Astor. “I really have to-.”

I really wasn’t
expecting what Luke did as I pushed open the door.

Opening his
mouth, he started to sing. Loudly. And really out of tune.

“
Please
forgive me I know not what I do...Don't deny me, this pain I'm going through,
please believe me, every word I say is true, please forgive me
-.”

Slamming the
door to the hall shut, I turned to face him. “What are you doing? Stop singing!
You’ll disturb people!” I exclaimed, spreading my hands in a ‘shut up’ motion.

A crafty grin
on his face, Luke shook his head. “I won’t stop singing till you forgive me,”
he said, a gleam in his eye.

“But singing
won’t make me forgive you,” I protested. “And you’re singing it wrong! I mean,
the lyrics are out of order and-.”

Wasn’t
registering. He started singing another song, even louder than before.

“
I'm not a
perfect person, there's many things I wish I didn't do, but I continue
learning, I never meant to do those things to you, and so I have to say before
you go, that I just want you to know
-,” Luke started, smirking at me like
he knew I was going to accept his apology after this song. Dammit, he had a
nice voice, and as a hopeless romantic, it was one of my dreams to be
serenaded, but this was just weird.

“Okay, okay,
stop,” I hissed, anxiously looking at the door. If I heard knocking, I would
totally hide under the bed. “Stop singing and give me one good reason why I
should forgive you.”

That oughta
shut him up.

“I’ll give you
two,” Luke said brightly. Crap. He held up a finger. “One. I can’t sleep at
night coz I feel so guilty.”

“Not my
prerogative,” I said, trying to appear heartless.
So that’s why he’s
yawning! It’s because of me!
I didn’t know whether to feel guilty or
pleased with that update.

He narrowed his
eyes at me. “You know, you don’t look as evil as you act.”

“Oh, we po’
folk are usually bitter when we come across rich people such as yourself,” I
said, sarcasm lacing my voice.

Luke looked
stung and I bit my lip. Was I being too hard on him?

“Look, CiCi,
I’m sorry I was nasty about you being poor,” he said softly, looking across the
room at me. The playful act was gone, a sincere look on his face.

“And you called
me a slut,” I put in, the fighter in me not wanting to let go for just a while
longer.

“I’m sorry for
calling you a slut.”

I nodded
pertly. “You should be.”

He looked at me
through his bangs. “I am. Really.” Then a slow grin spread across his face and
I sighed. I was getting pretty good at predicting what he was going to do next
(apart from the singing, which really caught me off guard) and I knew he was
about to say or do something stupid.
Just when I thought he was actually
being serious...
“But that being said, I think you should forgive me coz I
might die.”

What did I tell
you?
“Dude, I seriously don’t think that you would die if I didn’t forgive you,” I
said with a sigh.

“No, I mean I
actually might die. Take yourself out of the equation; my dying has nothing to
do with you.” He chuckled as I gave him a skeptical look. “You wouldn’t want to
deny me my dying wish, would you?”

I found my
voice. “That’s disgusting! Is that supposed to be funny?” I was outraged.
The
nerve
of this guy!
“You think joking about
death
is funny?”

Luke burst out laughing
as I ranted and raved. “Calm down for a sec! You don’t believe me, do you?” he
asked, sounding very amused.

“That you’re
gonna die? No! This is obviously another ploy to get my attention, like when
you asked me to marry you that day.” My cheeks smarted as I recalled the look
in his eyes when he had said ‘marry me.’ He had seemed so- earnest.
He was
playing! You know that, Celsi! Right? –Right?

“That worked,
didn’t it?” he asked, a smug look on his face.

“Well, this
won’t work. Save your awful practical jokes for someone who’ll fall for them. I
have to leave.”

Pretty good for
a dramatic exit. Unfortunately, Luke just wouldn’t let me leave. As I was
opening the door again, he got up from the bed, wincing again (curiosity was
kicking into gear. I had to know why he was wincing), and picked up a sheaf of
papers from the side table. “I can prove it,” he said simply, padding over to
me and handing me the papers.

Our fingers
brushed as I took them and I tried to ignore the frisson of electricity that
passed between us due to that fleeting touch.
Figment of my overactive
imagination.
But my eyes flickered up to Luke’s and as his eyes widened
slightly, all of a sudden I knew that he had felt it too.

“Uh, what is
this?” I asked, bending my head over the papers so that I wasn’t looking at him
anymore. God, every time I was around Luke I turned into a mess! Was I that
deprived?
Well, considering the only person who flirts with you is that
homeless guy who hangs out at the subway station, I’d say yes!
Shut up, mind.

But I couldn’t
ignore him because he was standing right next to me now, his breath making my
ear tingle. “See?” he said, pointing to a section of one of the papers.
“Written proof.”

My eyes scanned
the portion he pointed out for me and as I read, my throat grew dry. Looking up
at Luke, I managed to whisper “You have a cerebral aneurysm?”

He raised his
eyebrows, shooting me a surprised look. “You’ve heard of them? Coz I gotta be
honest with you. I didn’t even know what an aneurysm was till about 30 minutes
ago.”

“We learnt
about them in Science class. I’m so sorry, I- I didn’t think you were telling
the truth,” I said, biting my lip. Now I felt bad. Aneurysms were very serious,
from what I remembered, especially if they ruptured. And just the thought of Luke
going through that- even though I didn’t know him well at all, I still felt bad
for him.
He has to be going through hell right now.