Iron & Wine (The Iron World Series)

by Osmond, Candace

  "What's behind those doors?" I asked curiously, looking at the row of large doors on the back wall, knowing my bedroom was behind one of them.

  "The furthest one over is your room, and then we have our bathroom, spare room, and then my room," Julie listed off as she pointed to each one.

  "Jules, I can’t believe we live here!"

  "Well, I knew how upset you were to leave the country and I wanted you to feel at home. Plus, dad felt that it's the least he could do since your dad bought us the Vespa's for graduation," she replied, looking around at her new home, too.

  My heart sank at the mention of my father, and when I looked up at Julie, I guess it showed on my face.

  "Shit...aw, Avery, I’m sorry. I shouldn't have brought him up. But you know that your dad would be here if he could, and he would have come to graduation too, if he wasn't working in South Africa."

  Tess said nothing as she absently glanced the other way. She knew better; though her brother was a loving father, he was still a kid with commitment and maturity issues. My father, an independent professional photographer, did work for big clients. Right now, he was on safari in Africa for National Geographic. He has sent post cards once a month for the past nine months, with no word of when he's returning. It's pretty much been like that my whole life. Our relationship can fit into a shoebox of postcards.

  My mother left soon after I was born, saying she didn't want the responsibility of having a child. My father was helpless; he was still a child himself. That was when he brought me to Tess. She agreed to take care of me while dad pursued his career. Tess was always the more mature one, believe it or not.

  "Yeah, I know. I'm okay, don't worry," I assured them. "How about I unload all my things and then go test out the coffee downstairs?"

  At the promise of coffee, Julie and Tess hurried to help me bring everything in quickly so we could hurry downstairs to the cafe. The barista was a good looking guy around my age, with shaggy, dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. He gave us a warm, shy, and welcoming smile.

  I ordered my regular, coffee with milk while the other two both had decaf mocha's. The coffee was amazing. I tipped the barista, whose name tag said Will, and gave him a thankful smile. He blushed as he smiled back and turned away quickly.

  I took a seat at a small table with my aunt and my best friend. We chatted for a couple hours before Tess had to head home. After we said our goodbyes, Julie and I headed up to our new place to settle in. When we walked in, a wave of happiness swarmed over me as I took in the beauty of our new home once more. Julie had worked on this all summer, making trips back and forth to the city in her free time. I was overwhelmed with appreciation for all her hard work and dedication in surprising me and making a home tailor made for us.

  I gave her a huge hug, as no words were needed. She knew I was grateful; I didn't need to say anything. We always had an unspoken understanding with each other.

  She made her way towards the kitchen as I headed to my new room. "Hey, want a glass of wine? Tess gave me a bottle for us to break in the new place," Julie offered.

  I glanced at the familiar bottle and laughed. "Um, sure, but just one glass, that stuff is really potent. Tess and I drank a whole bottle Friday night and I ended up in one of the fountains in her back yard." I laughed at myself and entered my new room. I was taken aback by the beautiful glass doors which served as a second entrance onto the patio. I sat down on my queen sized bed to take off my shoes and get into my pyjamas.

  Still laughing, Julie called out to me, asking which fountain I stumbled into.

  "The big white one of...Keegan?" I answered, emerging back into the living room.

  "Oh, you mean Kheelan," she corrected.

  I gave a quick look of surprise, but then remembered she had been studying this mythical nonsense for most of her life.

  "Yeah, that's it, Kheelan," I said as she handed me a glass. I could smell the intoxicating aroma immediately and my mouth watered, my taste buds practically jumping off my tongue. A lingering tingle ran through my veins at the thought of drinking this wine again. I was never much of a drinker, but this unique wine was too amazing to ever pass up. We clinked our glasses to toast the new place.

  Julie’s eyes widened at the taste, much the same as mine did a few nights ago. "Wow," she spoke slowly, with a look of disbelief on her face as she peered into the glass. “Where did Tess get this wine?”

  “One of her friends, I think, why?”

  “Oh, no reason, just wondering,” Julie replied and then quickly yawned and placed her glass down on the island. “I’m pretty beat, I think I’m going to head to bed, is that cool?”

  “Oh, sure, yeah, you’ve had a longer day than me,” I said. I wouldn’t say, but I was a little relieved. I don’t think I could have been able to sit up all night talking about how excited we were for school when, honestly, I’m not.

  Chapter Four-Friends & Foes

  I showered and got ready for the day as Julie made us breakfast. I paced around my room, which was now covered in every piece of clothing I owned. I finally decided on a dark green tank top and my comfy jeans. I don't know why I was so nervous; everyone else will be just as new as I will be. Ok, calm down Avery, I told myself. I grabbed my purse, took a deep breath, and walked out to the kitchen.

  "Good morning, beautiful!" Julie greeted with enthusiasm. “Are you nervous?” she asked as she placed a plate of bacon and eggs on the table and handed me a coffee. The rich, familiar aroma instantly calmed me down. I inhaled deeply and smiled.

  "No not nervous, just excited, you know?" I lied.

  "Oh, I know. I can't wait to see the library." She was giddy with excitement as she stuffed a piece of bacon in her mouth.

  "Oh shit! We need to go!" she cried with her mouth full. "We should probably be there a little early to scope out the place and find out where everything is."

  I stood up and downed the rest of my coffee. We headed out the door and down through the cafe.

  ****

  "Wow, there are so many people!" Julie exclaimed as she looked around in anticipation. "Want to check out your class first?"

  "Sure, it's just up this hall here, I think," I replied, pointing to our left. "It shouldn't be that hard to find." We stopped in front of two large sliding doors. I instantly knew this was it; I could smell the paint thinner and oil paints, I could almost feel the electricity of creativity emanating from the other side of the doors. I was totally unsure of my move to the city or starting college, but if there was one thing I was certain of, it would be my love for art.

  "Wow, nice classroom Ave," she said, looking around at the murals painted on the walls and ceiling by previous students. One side of the room was lined with tables and shelves that stored the art supplies and the other side was all the benches, tables and easels for the students to work on. The windows included a set of old French doors that looked out onto a beautiful garden balcony. It was the perfect class to motivate young artists. Just then, I felt someone breeze in through the doorway next to us, bumping the books out of my hands.

  "Hey! Why don’t you watch where you’re going?” I cried, bending down to pick up my books. I then looked up and saw a petite, strawberry blonde girl, in a floral sun dress and tall, brown suede boots. She turned to glare at me with striking blue eyes that appeared to be filled with malice.

  "Well, don't stand in busy doorways," the girl snapped back. She was pretty, in an obvious sort of way, but she had a set look to her face, like it was permanently stuck on angry. God, I hope she is not in my class.

  "Sorry," I cowardly muttered under my breath. I didn’t want to cause any trouble on my first day. I looked at Julie who was giving the girl her best stink-eye.

  "Jules don't," I whispered. She always had a problem with keeping herself from telling people what they deserved to hear. Sometimes it was a good thing and other times it was not so good. Thi
s would be one of those not so good times.

  "Well, that was rude! You shouldn't be saying you’re sorry, she should be!" And with that, she marched over to the girl.

  "Excuse me?" she said, tapping the other girl on the shoulder. The girl turned and scowled at Julie as if she were the dirt under her fancy shoes. "I think you owe my friend an apology."

  The girl cocked an eyebrow and appeared to find this funny. "I'm sorry, who are you?" she laughed.

  "Julie Ryan,” Julie replied. “She's Avery Quinn," she added as she pointed at me with her thumb.

  "Okay, Julie, how about you leave and go to whatever pathetic class you're enrolled in and leave your friend here to be a big girl," suggested the nasty blonde with a bitchy tone and a snap of her fingers.

  "Are you in this class?" I asked over Julie’s shoulder, with a bit more confidence than I had before.

  "Yes, of course I am,” the girl replied as she flipped her hair back and stuck her nose in the air. “Not like I need to be though, I could be working at a gallery right now if I wanted to be."

  "Then why aren’t you?" I asked. I already began to despise her.

  "Because I feel that it’s important to get an education to back up my natural talent." Wow, she really was something else. Julie looked at me with wide eyes and raised eyebrows as if to say 'can you believe this chick'? I laughed in agreement.

  "You think it’s funny?" the girl snapped. "If you don't take this class seriously then you shouldn't be here. Actually, I like the sound of that. Leave!" She turned away and walked over to a small group of people standing on the balcony. I was speechless. I hope she was just having a bad day, I cannot imagine having to share a classroom with her for the next three years.

  "Come on Avery, let’s go," said Julie, motioning me out of the studio with a hand on my back. "Good luck with that self important bitch," she added.

  I'll just sit as far away from her as I can. I mean, there will be about forty or fifty people in this class, I could avoid her if I wanted to, I said to myself.

  On our way back home, we ran into the cute guy from the coffee shop. He was struggling with a mountain of books and looked like he was about to lose the battle. Julie ran over and caught them just in time.

  "Hey thanks," he said as he started to reassemble the books back into a manageable pile. "You're the girls who moved in upstairs, right?"

  "No problem, and yeah, we are! I'm Julie and she's Avery. How many classes are you taking?"

  He smiled shyly at her. "Oh, these aren’t all school books. Some are for casual reading," he sighed nervously. “Lame, I know,” he added, "Will, by the way."

  We stayed for a bit, talking on the sidewalk, continuing our introductions. Will said he was taking Creative Writing and Literature. That really perked up Julie’s interest. She was taking World History and World Mythology. Will was pleasantly surprised at both Jules’ and my majors.

  "Well, guess we're a bunch of arts geeks then," Will laughed awkwardly. I couldn’t tell if he was nervous around girls or if he was just like this all the time.

  We ended up hanging out for a while longer. Really enjoying each others company, we invited Will to our place that evening. He accepted before he continued on his way, saying he couldn’t wait to see us tonight. I caught a shy smile from him directed towards Julie, before he turned away.

  Chapter Five-Love Hate

  "I miss you so much, Avery," claimed Tess. She made me promise to call her as much as I could. I called and told her about our first day.

  "I miss you too Tess. We're actually thinking of coming home this coming weekend, to pick up a few more things and to see you of course."

  "Oh, sorry kid but I have the International Home and Garden Show this weekend. Take a rain check? How about next weekend I come into the city and we'll have a movie night?"

  "Sounds good Tess, but I got to go. Will should be here soon."

  "Well have fun. I’m glad that you guys made a friend so soon," Tess said, but I knew she was hoping that one of us would be more than friends with him. She was always trying to get us to date. She even set us up one time with one of her designer friends two sons. That was a nightmare. Turned out, they weren’t interested in us. But it wasn't just us; it was any female, if you catch my drift.

  Other than that, we had been on a few dates throughout high school and we had dates for prom but no relationships. It's not that we were weird or anything, we just didn't find guys from our small town very interesting. Plus, Julie had her job at the book store and I was always doing minor art competitions and helping Tess out with her work.

  I was taking the nachos out of the oven when a knock came at the door. I went to answer it but Julie came running, literally, out of her room.

  "I'll get it!" she cried, practically jumping at the handle. I laughed and went back to the kitchen. A few moments later, she and Will entered the room. He had a bunch of rented movies.

  "Hey Will. What movies did you get?" I asked. I didn't want to scare him, but Julie and I were pretty hard core movie buffs and we were picky over our movie night rentals.

  "I got Kung Fu Kick Off and Terminator one, two and three," he replied. Julie shot me a concerned look. I returned one to her. She hated Kung Fu movies.

  "Kidding!" he laughed. "I got Across the Universe and Rent. Geez, you guys should have seen your faces." He laid the movies down on the island. "I'm going to run downstairs and grab some coffees, you guys want?"

  I smiled and nodded. "Will, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," I said jokingly. It's like he got us already, the nervousness quickly dissolved from him, so I guess it was just from being around girls.

  "I'll come with you," Julie offered. She grinned at me and left with Will to go downstairs. I think I could already see where that was going. I put the nachos on the coffee table and grabbed the popcorn from the microwave and the movies from the kitchen.

  They returned with the drinks and some cookies from the cafe. We had an awesome movie spread. We sat and watched the movies and sang along with most of the songs while finishing off almost all of the food. Julie and Will shared the couch while I was curled up in the big comfy chair. The night ended when Julie woke me up from the junk food coma I fell into.

  "Hey you, bed?" she whispered. The television was off and the apartment was quiet and dark. I guess Will had left at some point during my nap. I sleepily got up from the chair and said good night as I slugged to my room, sick from all the junk food. I loved movie nights.

  The next day at school was crazy. There seemed to be double the amount of people than there was yesterday. We got there early and met Will by the coffee cart.

  "So, what are you guys doing later?" he asked.

  "Probably celebrating the fact that we got through our first day of college,” I kidded.

  “Cool, mind if I join?” he asked, and blushed as he glanced at Julie from the corner of his eye.

  “Sure,” my best friend answered with doe eyes and a flirty smile. I discreetly rolled my eyes. I wonder how long this was going to go on.

  The bell rang and we all looked at each other with nervous sighs.

  "Meet here for lunch?" I suggested. The three of us agreed and went on our separate ways to begin our first classes.

  I made my way up a large staircase and down a long hall, passing about a hundred of my new fellow schoolmates as I did, before stopping in front of the doorway that I would enter every day for the next few years. With one deep breath, I entered the art studio that was now my classroom. I forced a smile as I made my way to a work station in the far back corner right next to the beautiful French doors that looked out over the garden balcony. Perfect. I can't believe no one had nabbed this seat yet.

  The class was quickly filling up with students, I noted some of them who gave me strange looks, and then that girl walked in, the angry one from yesterday.
She eyed me and glared. I felt like crawling under the table or something. What did I do to offend her already? She strutted over to where I was, everyone's eyes moving back and forth from her to me.

  "This is my seat," she simply stated with one hand on her hip.

  "I'm sorry; I didn't see anyone's stuff here. I didn't know someone had it."

  "I know, but it's clearly the best seat and I was planning on sitting here," she said.

  "So, you mean, it's not actually your seat, you just wanted it?" I confirmed. I can't believe her! Who did she think she was?

  "Look," she started and intensely leaned in towards my face. "You’ve obviously never heard of me. So I will let you off easy this one time. No one has chosen this work station because it's the best and everyone knows that I always want and get the best. My name is Max Carmichael, of the Carmichaels. I want this work station, so kindly move."

  I don't know what came over me. I suddenly wanted to put her in her place and tell her that she was a horrible person, pull her hair at the very least. I didn't care who she was, and I never heard of the Carmichaels either. That wasn't like me.

  "Look, Max. If you didn't actually take this seat first then you can forget about me giving it to you. I don't care who the hell you are. The seat next to me is just as good, help yourself." I turned and pretended to be very interested in one of my books. I could tell that I was blushing terribly and could hear everyone gasp in shock, but I didn't care. It felt good to actually stand up to her, I could tell from her expression in the corner of my eye that she wasn't used to people doing that.