The Pull of Destiny (28 page)

“Join the
club,” Shazia said fervently.

“Yeah, I heard
about the fashion show,” Luke said to her as he zipped up his hoodie.

“Did you hear
about the wings?” Shazia asked him, running a hand through her long hair.

Luke’s grin
grew wider. “No, but I heard about the eye patch.”

Shazia sighed
as she contemplated the indignities that Aisha was piling on her. “At least the
most you have to deal with is a tux. Meanwhile, at some point during that
night, I’ll be dressed like a fairy,” she said, fixing Luke with an expression
that clearly said ‘you don’t know how good you’ve got it.’

“But it
will
be fun to diss Ahmed about wearing a pirate costume,” Luke snickered
loudly.

Making a face,
Shazia said, “That’s not gonna work. He thinks it makes him look sexy.”

“OMG!” We all
jumped as Robyn squealed loudly, bouncing up and down on the hard bench. “Todd
made a touch down! Go, Todd!”

Shazia rolled
her eyes and smiled as Luke leaned closer to me and whispered, “Who’s Todd?” in
my ear.

“Her
boyfriend,” I replied.

“That’s why
you’re freezing your asses off out here, coz Robyn’s watching her boyfriend
play football?” Luke asked incredulously.

Shazia nodded,
throwing her hands up in the air. “I pretty much said the same thing!”

“They’re
providing moral support,” Robyn interjected, finally calm again.

Luke stared out
at the field and shook his head. “Look at those guys. I’m glad I stopped
playing when I did. It’s way too cold to be running around in shorts. And to be
sitting here.” He nudged Robyn. “Robyn, can I steal these two and take them
someplace warmer?”

“Lucas Astor,
nobody is forcing you to be here,” Robyn told him haughtily, tossing her hair
over her shoulder.

“But she’s
forcing us to be here,” Shazia muttered. I don’t think that Robyn was meant to
hear that, but she did.

Pouting, she
said, “I thought you were here with me because you love me!”

“We do love
you, muffin!” I said, reaching around Luke to pat Robyn’s knee and almost
falling into Luke’s lap in the process. “We just- don’t like the wind, that’s
all.”

“Nobody likes
the wind,” Luke intoned in tones of doom.

Robyn glared at
Luke. “Luke, what are you doing here anyway?”

A mock scared
look on his face, Luke said, “Don’t get pissy, I was just joking. You guys are
welcome to sit in the wind.”

“No, really.
You just randomly come up and sit with us and start chatting like you do this
all the time.” Robyn had the curious light that I knew so well in her brown
eyes. “What’s up with that?”

Tactful-
not.

Biting his lip
and glancing at me, Luke said, “Way to drop a hint, Robyn.”

Robyn’s cheeks
reddened as she tried to rectify the situation. “I’m not- I wasn’t-,” she
stammered, looking mortified.

“Don’t worry,
Robyn, I actually gotta be somewhere pretty soon,” Luke assured her, looking at
his watch. “I was just looking for CiCi.”

He put a warm
hand on my knee, a gesture that wasn’t missed by Shazia and Robyn
. I am so
gonna get it when he leaves.

“And why were
you looking for- CiCi?” Robyn asked, obviously biting back a laugh.

Luke grinned
cheekily at Robyn and I swear she swooned.
Please don’t let her faint.
“From my lips to her ears,” he said to her.
In other words, mind your own
damn business, Robyn.

Leaning closer
to me till his lips really were at my ear, Luke whispered, “So, are you free
today to- you know?”

I could
practically feel Robyn straining to listen as I whispered back. “I have to
volunteer at the hospital today,” I said, real regret in my voice.

“Oh. Okay.”

Was it just me
or did he look disappointed?

“But I get off
at 6 if you want to meet after that,” I added hurriedly. I wanted to hang out
with the guy, okay? He was cute, nice and he smelt great.

And judging
from the slow smile that spread over his face as I said the last part, he
wanted to hang out with me too. “I don’t mind, sounds good to me.”

I sighed
(inaudibly, I hope) with relief. “Okay, 6 it is. I heard that the view is
amazing at night.”

I hoped he
wouldn’t call me on that because I had no idea who had told me that the view
from the Empire State Building was beautiful at night, but he just grinned at
me.

“Yeah, me too.”

Our eyes met
and locked as another jolt of electricity passed between us, quickening my
pulse and leaving me breathless.

This
definitely is not normal.

And this time,
I knew that I wasn’t alone in feeling the connection. Luke’s green eyes widened
and his perfect lips parted as he stared into my eyes wordlessly.

We could have
stayed like that forever if Shazia hadn’t said, “Ahem!”

I dragged my
eyes off of Luke’s face and found myself looking at Shazia, who looked
extremely amused.

“That was a
very intense look right there,” drawled Robyn, raising her eyebrows up at me as
I flushed. Now, obviously I had every right in the world to be embarrassed- I
had just had a ‘moment’ with a hot guy in front of my friends! But I was very
surprised to see Luke blush. Very, very surprised.

“I’ll see you
there,” he whispered in my ear, squeezing my knee before he stood up. “As much
as I’d love to kick it with you beautiful ladies, I gotta go. I have a meeting
with my counselor.”

I looked up at
him, the wind blowing my hair into my eyes. “Did you get into trouble?”

He paused in
clambering over a bench and looked back at us, his hair blowing around his
face, making him look rather edible. “Me, trouble?” He grinned, pointing to his
chest. “Always. See you guys.”

“Bye,” Shazia,
Robyn and I said together, sounding like a really bad choir.

The moment they
thought Luke was out of earshot, the girls turned on me with a vengeance.

“Celsiana
Sawyer,” Shazia said, folding her arms around her chest.

Stay cool,
Celsi.

“What?” I
asked, smiling chirpily at her.

Robyn laughed.
“What?” she repeated as I squirmed uncomfortably. And my squirming had nothing
to do with the hard seats. “You and Luke conjure up all that electricity and
all you can say is
what
?”

I looked down
at my feet.
So I
didn’t
imagine the sparks, there really
was
electricity
.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said firmly.

“Okay, I’ll ask
you in layman’s terms,” Robyn continued. “What’s going on between you and
Luke?”

I bit my lip.
Not
what you think.
I knew that I couldn’t tell Robyn about the list, which
meant I had to fall back on my old lie- Science class. Luckily, Robyn and
Shazia weren’t in my Science class so they had no way of knowing whether I was
lying or not. Even though they probably knew that there was something off with
that story, I was sticking to it.

“I told you, we
have a Science-,” I started.

Waving her hand
dismissively, Robyn interrupted me.
How rude.
“Yeah, Science project,
blah, blah, blah. Shaz babe, help me out.”

‘Shaz babe’ was
more than willing to help Robyn out and I cringed as she stood up and started
pacing in front of me like Miss Trunchbull.

“Okay, firstly,
he calls you CiCi,” Shazia started. “A pet name.”

“Lots of guy’s
call girls pet names,” I protested, racking my brain for a magazine article I
had read about that. “It just means he can’t be bothered to remember my real
name.”

Robyn snorted.
“That’s bogus.”

“Secondly, he’s
squeezing your shoulder and putting his hand on your knee. What’s up with
that?” Shazia asked, stopping in front of me with her hands behind her back and
a stern frown on her face.

I shrugged.
“He’s just touchy feely, that’s all.”

“No. I’ve known
Luke my whole life and he’s never touched me. Ever.” Robyn gave me a ‘so there’
look.

I couldn’t
resist sticking my tongue out at her. “Jealous?”

Shazia wasn’t
done. “And finally, the whole gazing into ones eye thing,” she barked, sounding
like a drill sergeant.

Robyn
spluttered with surprised laughter. “You seriously are on romance novel
overload, Shaz babe. ‘Gazing into ones eye’? Last time I checked, it was called
eye contact!” She turned to me. “And that was some lust filled eye contact. I
was totally expecting you guys to start making out right in front of us.”

I didn’t even
want to think about the prospect of making out with Luke, so I pushed it to the
back of my mind and stared wildly at Robyn. “I just- we just looked at each
other!” I protested.

“And the
temperature went straight up,” Shazia noted.

“You guys
should work for TMZ and make mountains out of molehills,” I mumbled, pulling at
a loose thread on my jeans.

“We’re not,”
Shazia said self-righteously. “Something’s going on between you two.”

I shook my
head. “Nothing is. He’s just a friend.”

Great, now the
image of Luke’s lips was etched in my mind.
Thank you, Robyn.

“So now he’s a
friend?” Robyn pounced on that tidbit eagerly.

just to be
perverse, I asked, “Anything wrong with that?”

“Nope. But if
he’s just a friend,” Shazia started, making me tense. I knew I wasn’t going to
like what was coming, “then why did he keep sneaking you little glances when he
thought you weren’t looking?”

Interesting
development.

“Um, really?” I
asked curiously. Maybe I had something on my face? Or maybe he was just looking
at me because-
what, Celsi?

Shazia nodded.
“Oh, yeah.”

 Not wanting to
be left out of the loop, Robyn added, “I think he likes you.”

My mouth
dropped open seconds before I burst out laughing. “What?” I spluttered. “Shut
up!”

Robyn punched
my shoulder. “You shut up,” she giggled.

“And
I
think
you
like
him
,” Shazia said sternly, no trace of a smile on
her pretty face. “Friend. Humph. A guy and a girl can’t be friends. It’s been
scientifically proven.”

I rolled my
eyes. “That’s crap,” I said.

“But you guys
do like each other,” Shazia insisted.

just to get
them off my back, I finally admitted, “He’s cute, okay?”

“He’s hot,”
Robyn corrected me.

“Okay, he’s
infernally hot,” I agreed.

“Sizzling hot,”
Shazia said.

“And I do like
him a little bit but that doesn’t mean anything,” I said, talking loudly over
Robyn’s ‘aha!’ “It’s just a tiny crush. Like the one I have on Ahmed.”

Shazia groaned.
“You’re such a fool for that one.”

“Can you guys
stop giving me the third degree about Luke now?” I pleaded.

Giving me a
blithe smile, Shazia said, “We stopped talking about Luke ages ago. Why do you
keep bringing it up?”

“Shut up.”

CHAPTER 13

What happens on
top of the world.

Empire State
Building

Luke was
waiting patiently outside the Empire State Building as I walked up. He had a
coffee in each hand and as I drew closer to him, he handed me one. I took it
gratefully, silently groaning with the quiver that ran through my body as his
fingers grazed mine.

Celsi,
you’re wearing mittens, for Pete’s sakes! What’s wrong with you?

Luke
withdrawal. I thought I had gotten the whole
‘I shiver when Luke touches me’
thing out of my system after all the Baskin Robbins cuddling but
apparently- not.

Luckily for me,
Luke never seemed to notice these episodes and I hoped that he would continue
being the King of Oblivion.

“Thanks,” I
said, taking a sip of the burning hot coffee.