The Pull of Destiny (16 page)

“Sure, I’m free
this afternoon,” I said automatically.

Luke grinned,
punching me softly on the arm, the slight touch making me twitch (unnoticeably,
I hoped). “Sweet. I’ll see you this afternoon, then. At the penthouse. I gotta
go.”

“Okay, bye!”

I said turn
your enthusiasm down, Celsi!

I watched him
walk down the hallway, slapping palms with people as he passed them.

A poke in the
back reminded me where I was and I turned back to Robyn and Shazia, trying and
failing to mask the guilty look on my face.

“What was that
all about?” Robyn asked nosily, her arms folded over her chest as she stared at
me.

I decided to
play dumb. “What?”

“Don’t act all
coy with us; you were making plans with Luke Astor!” Shazia’s eyes were glowing
with excitement as she looked at me. “
‘I’m free this afternoon’
- free to
do what?”

“Yeah, we wanna
know!” Robyn exclaimed. “I mean, he was looking for you yesterday.” Her brown
eyes widened. “Is something going on between you two?”

I raised my
eyebrows in surprise. “Between me and Luke? Nothing’s going on!”

Robyn stuck her
tongue out at me. “That’s what she said!”

I rolled my
eyes. “Oh, ha-ha. For your information, we have a- Science project that we’re
doing together.” I shrugged, proud of my spontaneous lie. “It’s nothing
important.”

Robyn grimaced.
“Ick. Better you than me,” she said.

“So we want to
get it over with as soon as possible,” I continued.

“How come you
never said anything about it before?” Shazia asked, a small frown creasing her
forehead.

I spread my
hands out in front of me, palms down. “I just found out yesterday,” I lied.

 Robyn was an
easy mark; I could tell she believed me. But Shazia had an unconvinced look on
her face so I decided to play my trump card.

Putting a hand
on my hip, I said, “Do you guys really think I wouldn’t tell you if a guy like
Luke was inviting me over to his place for something other than school work?”

It worked!

Shazia nodded
grudgingly. “I guess not,” she said slowly.

I pouted,
linking arms with the two. “You guys should have more trust in me.”

“We’re sorry,”
Shazia said, hugging me.

“You should
be,” I joked.

Because
although Luke wasn’t inviting me over to do schoolwork, (I lied to my best
friends, I feel bad, I’m a terrible person) if it wasn’t for his list, he
wouldn’t be inviting me over at all.

He invited
you over to play the piano.

Shut up, mind.
That had been the meds talking. I think.

Shazia was
looking at me like she knew exactly what I was thinking, which was awkward.
Because even
I
was creeped out with what I was thinking. Luke was
charming, sure, but any interest he had in me was purely friendly. Apart from
his aneurysm secret and the list, there was nothing between us. And that’s how
it would stay.

***

When school was
out, I hugged Shazia and Robyn goodbye and walked down the sidewalk, my hands
stuffed into the pocket of my jacket. Although it was sunny, the chill wind
whistled around my ears. I couldn’t wait to be in the relative warmth of the
subway. My plan was to go home, change then head out again to help Robyn pick
out a dress for the gala. I hunched my shoulders, wishing my jacket had a hood
to combat the wind.

All of a
sudden, a limo slowed down next to me and I almost shrieked as the window
rolled down. Was I about to be kidnapped? My mouth opened, (probably to squawk
‘I’m not a Legacy student, I’m on financial aid! Don’t kidnap me’) but I heaved
a sigh of relief as Luke poked his head out of the window, a happy grin on his
face.

“God, you
scared me!” I admitted, placing a hand over my thumping heart. Of course,
now
it was thumping because Luke was looking infinitely gorgeous (as usual) but it
was a darn sight better than having a mini heart attack because I thought I was
going to be kidnapped.

Luke laughed, a
low, husky sound that made the short hairs on the back of my neck rise.
“Sorry,” he said, opening the door. “Where are you going? I’ll drop you off.”

“I was just
headed to the subway,” I replied, clutching my bag as I stood on the sidewalk,
eyes darting left and right. Oh Lord, if anyone from school saw this- hell, if
Ahmed
saw me standing here with this limo door opened like this, he would totally
think I was actually giving out sexual favors. I couldn’t just get into Luke's
limo though, could I?

Celsi, it’s
cold!

Shut up, mind.

Snorting, Luke
made a ‘come here’ motion with one hand. “Get in; we’ll give you a ride. It’s
freezing out there.” He smiled, his dimples popping, and just like that, I
melted. “I won’t take no for an answer.”

What would
you
have done?

I got into
Luke’s personal limo (a personal limo. For a 17 year old boy. The things rich
folk spent their cash on) and Luke offered to get his driver to drive me home.
I baulked.

“You can just
drop me off at the subway,” I said. I wasn’t embarrassed of where I lived; I
just didn’t want to know what Nate would do if he saw me being dropped off at
home by a limo. And I didn’t want to find out.

“You sure?”
Luke asked, a frown creasing his forehead.

“You’d probably
get lost in Harlem. Anyway, I like taking the subway.”

Luke didn’t
look too convinced but he agreed to drop me off at the nearest subway.

“So- I heard
you live with your aunt?” he asked, once we were back in the car. I nodded.

“My aunt and my
cousin,” I told him.

“Is your cousin
older or younger than you?” he asked, then grinned. “I just realized that I
don’t know that much about you.”

 “He’s older.”

Luke nodded,
staring at me thoughtfully. He didn’t say anything else about my family and I
was glad. I just didn’t feel like explaining my history to him right there.

"Hey, do you have a
cell phone?" A grin appeared on his face as he asked me this and he ran a
hand through his hair. "God, I'm such a ditz. Who
doesn't
have a
cell phone these days?"

I grinned back. I begged
to differ. Nate didn't have a phone, not since he sold his for gin.

"Yeah, I do," I
replied. Short silence as Luke stared at me expectantly, and then I almost
smacked myself on the forehead. He wanted me to give him my number! 
Duh,
Celsi!
 "Oh, okay, here's my number," I said, feeling like a ditz
too. I wrote it on a piece of paper because Luke said he left his phone at home
and handed it to him.

"Thanks." A
wicked gleam appeared in his eyes as he added, "I promise I won't be
waking you up in the middle of the night, crying."

I giggled. "I'm actually
pretty good with cry-babies," I joked.

He accompanied
me down into the subway, keeping one hand on my back the entire time and
staring down the hobo who always hit on me. It was sweet, his concern. My aunt
was always too busy and Nate- he didn’t care about anyone but himself these
days. So it was nice that Luke cared enough to even think about escorting me
down here.

“Thanks for
escorting me down here. You can leave now, I’m safe,” I joked, a teasing grin
on my face. “My trains coming pretty soon.”

Luke gazed down
at me, biting his lip. “Thanks, CiCi,” he said softly and sincerely as I stared
up at him in surprise. “For everything you’ve done. I’m really grateful.”

I smiled
gratefully. “You’re welcome,” I said, clutching my book bag closer to me.

To my surprise,
he spread his arms. “Can I hug you?” he asked, that endearingly shy look on his
face again. Feeling shy myself, I nodded.

“Sure.”

And I held my
breath as he wrapped his arms around me, his hands rubbing up and down my back
as he whispered, “Thank you,” in my ear again.

Being around
the guy was a hazard to my health. It wasn’t natural that he made me feel so-
into him.
Not cool.

He brushed his
lips against my cheek as he let go. “I’ll- see you tomorrow?” he asked.

I nodded,
totally forgetting that tomorrow was Saturday.

“Yeah. See you
tomorrow.”

He smiled.
“Take care.”

And he was off,
lost in the masses of New Yorkers populating the subway. And I tried to slow my
racing heart, glad that I was Luke’s friend. Glad that, for a while, I had
forgotten who I actually was and where I would be going tonight. It was Friday,
which meant that Nate would arrive home drunk and that was never good. But at
least I had forgotten that, when I had been in Luke’s arms.

***

You know you’re
in trouble when you’re supposed to be studying for a pretty important Social
Science test but all you want to do is finish the sappy romance novel lying
temptingly on your pillow.

I turned a page
in my deathly boring text book, snuck yet another longing glance at the novel
and let out a sigh.

It’s the
ultimate temptation.
You cannot place a novel in my path and expect that I’ll actually be able to
concentrate on my schoolwork when all I see every time I look up is an enticing
pink cover just waiting for me to open.
It’s not fair.

“Damn,” I
muttered to myself, throwing my Socials book to the side and picking up the
romance. I shook it. “Are you happy now? If I fail this test and get kicked out
of Dalton, it’ll be all on your head.”

Even though I
thought the book would be worth it. Well, not exactly worth being kicked out of
the most elite school in New York, but you know what I mean. Shazia had lent it
to me after she read it and wouldn’t stop raving about it. When Shazia raved
about a book, you knew it was going to be good.
And I
could
use a
break
.

It was Saturday
and I’d been up since 8am, doing my chores. After that I ran several errands
for Aunt Kelly and since then I’d been holed up in my room, studying. It was
just before lunch and I really wanted to sneak into the kitchen and make myself
a sandwich but with the squabble going on in the living room, I didn’t want to
risk it. I could hang on till I left to go to work.
That’s in four hours,
Celsi
.

“You deserve
it,” I said, my voice echoing within the confines of my small room as I lay
down on my stomach and opened the book, my chin propped in my hand.
Just one
chapter and I’ll get back to studying.

Then again,
maybe I wouldn’t. Reading was the best way for me to escape the reality currently
happening in our living room. Covering my ears with my pillow wasn’t doing
anything to block out the angry voices of Aunt Kelly and Nate, because they
kept growing louder as their argument escalated. I didn’t dare show my face
outside my room until the furor died down, but I knew it would take a while.
Aunt Kelly was truly pissed at Nate because he had showed an utter lack of
empathy and pawned Uncle Franklin’s wedding ring for gambling money. His excuse
for doing that was ‘dad’s been dead for fifteen years! He’s never gonna wear
that ring again, so why would you need it?’

I kid you
not.

I wasn’t too
surprised that Nate would stoop that low, actually. He pawned everything. In
fact, in the past 4 years, he had hocked our TV (twice), the CD player, the
microwave and the computer monitor. He even pawned my most treasured
possession, the blue, engraved locket which had been my mothers. My hand
brushed against it now as I turned the page, kicking my legs in the air. Inside
the locket was a picture of me and my mom taken a few months before she abandoned
me. It was the only thing of hers that I had. Nate had pawned it for ten bucks
but it took Aunt Kelly fifty dollars to get it back. Ever since then, I’ve worn
it safely around my neck, only taking it off when I had to shower.

I was just
getting into the story (which was a totally clichéd
girl-falls-in-love-with-brothers-best-friend tale, but I didn’t mind. I love
cliché’s, the cheesier the better) when my cell vibrated loudly on my dresser,
bringing me back from the land of make believe with a bang. My heart thumped in
my chest as I swung my head from left to right, wondering what the hell that
noise was, disoriented for a second.
I need to take that damn phone off
vibrate!
Every time someone called me, I almost had a mini heart attack.
Stretching out my arm, I picked up my phone and flipped it open, without
bothering to check who was calling. I knew it was Robyn with a dress emergency.
When I left her yesterday, she had anxiously been debating over a green halter
dress and a floor-length white one.