by Ivy Rose
The first thing I noticed was a little garden arbour, and I silently thanked whoever had built one out here. At least I could seek shelter for a little while before going back inside. The arbour was equipped with a little table and two chairs, and I gratefully sat down and stared out in the darkness. I still felt a bit light-headed after what had happened earlier. I inhaled the fresh autumn air and closed my eyes. After a while I heard a car start, then everything went completely silent. The girls must have either gone inside or gone home. I stood up and wrapped my jacket around me a little tighter. It was so cold tonight.
I headed back towards the front of the house, seeking warmth from the lanterns, even though I wasn’t ready to go back inside just yet. Everything was so confusing; this whole evening seemed to be nothing more than a vivid dream.
“Aurora!” Adrian called out.
Surprised I halted for a second. I didn’t think that he would follow me out here. I looked around at my surroundings. It was too late to hide behind a car, so I just kept walking. This time I wasn’t going to listen to him. I was done playing his games. I moved myself between the cars, then I felt two strong hands on my shoulders.
“Where are you going? I’ve been looking all over for you.” His voice had a soft tone to it, but it was full of concern. His hands lingered on my shoulders, waiting for me to say or do something, but I refused to talk to him. I was determined to ignore him with every bit of resistance that I possessed. “Aurora, come on…talk to me…” Once again, his voice travelled beyond my common sense, and I couldn’t help but turn around to face him. “That’s better,” he murmured.
I faltered for a second, but only slightly. I’d never met anyone so alluring in my whole life. He was divine. Aurora, no. He’s got Evangeline.
“What are you doing out here?” I asked in a clipped tone.
“I wanted to make sure you were safe.”
“Of course I’m safe. You’re the one who told me Angel Falls was a safe place, just a couple of days ago.”
“And I stand by my words, but you fainted earlier.”
I nodded, keeping my eyes on him. “So you say.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Well, now you’re making me curious, Aurora.” He tilted his head towards the house. “What exactly do you think happened back there?”
What did I think happened in there? It was quite obvious I’d fainted. Still, something inside of me wasn’t at peace with that answer. It was like I was missing an important piece of information. I just wasn’t sure what it was, or where it was. But I trusted my instincts, and I refused to let this go.
I shook my head. “I don’t know…”
“Do you think I’m lying to you?” he asked.
“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time…”
He laughed softly as he shook his head. “Let me ask you this, Aurora: is this really about the fainting, or is this about something, or maybe someone else?”
I knew he was referring to my earlier outburst in the kitchen. I swallowed, as I tried to choose my words wisely. I didn’t want to sound bitter.
“If you think that I care about the fact that you have a girlfriend, you couldn’t be more wrong. I don’t care who you’re with. I just don’t understand why you would lie about something that is so obvious. I saw you with her. I was there, remember?”
He took a step forward, and now he was really invading my personal space. I tried to take a step back, to create some distance, but ended up against a car. Seriously, didn’t he know anything about boundaries?!
“What are you doing?”
He ignored my question and leaned over me, placing both palms on the car on either side of my head, caging me in. We were so damn close. His breath caressed my face and when his eyes seared into mine, I could swear the temperature spiked by at least a hundred degrees. I couldn’t breathe; I was drowning in an ocean of mesmerising blue, struggling to find my way up to the surface again.
“Things are not always what they seem, Aurora,” he whispered gently and tucked my hair behind my ear.
I swallowed. “What does that mean?”
“Well, that means that whatever you think you saw, is simply not—”
“So, what are you trying to say?” I interrupted.
He pushed himself away from the car and took a step backwards, still with his eyes on me. “You really shouldn’t be out here by yourself.”
Frustrated, I looked to my side and into the darkness surrounding us. I could hear the leaves rustle in the light wind, and except for the lights from the lanterns, everything was dark and quiet. Peaceful even. I turned my head back towards Adrian.
“And why shouldn’t I be out here by myself? Are you worried that I’m going to be mauled by a bear, or a wolf or something?”
“No, that wouldn’t be your biggest concern right now.”
What?
Then it clicked, or so I thought, and the same overwhelming jealousy I’d felt when I saw him kiss Evangeline took over me. He was thinking of her. Maybe she was on her way to the party. The thought fuelled anger within me, and I just couldn’t hold it in; it was suffocating me.
“Maybe my biggest concern should be that girlfriend of yours, huh?” I snapped. As soon as the words left my mouth, I wanted to take them back, but it was already out there for him to analyse. This whole thing with Adrian was like going on a roller-coaster at full speed, not knowing when it would stop. It was hard to keep up. One minute I was completely intoxicated with him, the next I wanted to punch him. Right now, I wanted answers, which I knew he would never give. Why did it have to be so complicated?
Adrian gave a soft chuckle. “Are you jealous, angel?”
“Me? Jealous? Don’t flatter yourself! And by the way, my name is not angel,” I said as calmly as I could, although I knew my body language was betraying me. I was beyond mad, and by the way he was looking at me, he knew exactly what I was trying so hard to deny. Because the truth was, I was jealous. I was so freaking jealous right now.
“Whatever you say, Aurora.” He put his hands up in defeat, but his eyes were laughing. He was obviously amused by this whole situation.
I threw him a sharp look. “Stop laughing at me.” I tried so hard to look and feel angry, but I could feel my anger starting to vanish, replaced by that unsettling storm of yearning again. The never-ending turmoil.
“I’m not laughing at you. Look, it’s late, why don’t you let me take you home?”
“Late? But I just got here, I don’t want to go home.” I was feeling surprisingly hurt by his suggestion to leave so soon. Didn’t he want me here when the beautiful Evangeline arrived?
“It’s close to midnight, Aurora. You’ve been here for hours. Besides, Lexi has already gone.”
“What are you talking about? I just got here, and Lexi would never leave me here alone. Stop messing with me, Adrian.”
“I’m not messing with you.”
“Yes, you are. You always are.”
“I’m not. Look, I’ll prove it to you. Do you have your phone with you?”
“Why?” I asked suspiciously.
“Look at the time on your phone, Aurora. It’s close to midnight. I’m not lying to you. Why would I?”
I eyed him suspiciously. “I don’t know, maybe because you’re expecting someone and want me to leave?” I spat.
Jeez. Where did all these emotions come from? I really needed to get a hold of myself. This jealousy thing was getting completely out of control.
“And why would it matter if you were here?” he asked as his eyes met mine.
“Well…” Then I stopped myself. Why would he care if I was here? He clearly didn’t care about me. He had a beautiful girlfriend and I was making it sound like I was more important to him than I actually was. Embarrassed, I looked away.
“Sorry, I don’t know what I’m talking about.” I turned my gaze back to him.
Adrian studied me with a ghost of a smile on his lips. Then he shook his head lightly. “You are so not like I expected
…”
“Well, I guess I have to apologise for disappointing you as well,” I barked back at him.
He took a step forward and levelled his eyes with mine. His voice lowered intimately. “Who said I was disappointed?”
His words smashed through any resilience I thought I possessed, and that painfully familiar feeling swelled in my chest. Even though it was both confusing and unnerving, there was also a sense of excitement now spreading through my body, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I swallowed.
“Now, look at your phone. I promise, I am not lying to you.”
I tore my eyes from him and pulled my phone out of my pocket. He was right; the display showed that it was a few minutes before midnight. As if this evening wasn’t confusing enough, I honestly started to fear for my own sanity. Where had the last five hours gone? Where had I been the whole evening?
“See, you need to stop doubting me.”
I looked down at my phone again and noticed a new text message from Lexi, telling me she’d gone home, asking me to call her tomorrow. My eyes immediately shot back up towards the cars parked around us, and I realised that her car was missing. Was that the car I’d heard take off earlier when I was hiding in the garden in the dark? But why had she left me here all alone? She would never do that to me; she wasn’t like that. I put my phone back in my pocket and looked at Adrian.
“Did you tell Lexi that I was going with you?”
“No, I didn’t. Why? Would you like to take me up on my offer?”
“Well, Lexi is gone. So yeah, I guess that’s what I’m doing,” I replied, feeling completely exhausted. I couldn’t be bothered walking back inside to look for any of the other girls or for Julian. This night had really taken its toll on me and I just wanted to go home. I was so done with this whole evening.
“It would be my pleasure, Aurora.”
We walked in silence to his car, and I found myself in his passenger seat for the second time in a week. No matter what I did to prevent it, we always seemed to end up together alone, one way or another.
“Are you all right?” Adrian asked as he started the car.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just a little bit tired. I hope I didn’t spoil your evening,” I murmured and leaned my forehead against the cool window, closing my eyes.
“Why would you think that?”
I turned my gaze away from the window and looked at his profile. “Well, you might have wanted to…you know…acquaint yourself with certain people…” I had no idea what I meant. Well, that wasn’t quite true, I knew exactly who I was referring to. Mortified, I tried to come up with something to say, because I was once again showing him that I cared way too much.
He tipped his head back and laughed softly before responding. “Aurora, I’m quite satisfied to acquaint myself with you tonight. Don’t worry about me.”
“I’m just saying…I don’t want to…you know…be in the way of…you know.” Was I for real?! I always seemed to become cripplingly awkward when I was around him. I stopped my mutterings and looked away from him. That’s when I saw something ahead of us. Someone was standing in the middle of the road.
“Adrian!” I screamed. “Slow down, there’s someone in the middle of the road!”
I turned to make sure he understood what I was saying, but to my horror, he increased speed. We weren’t going fast, but we would hit this person if he didn’t slow down.
“Adrian, slow down!” I yelled hysterically and reached down towards the dashboard, preparing myself for impact, just like you were supposed to do in an airplane crash. Except, we never crashed.
I waited and waited, but I never felt an impact. It took me a while to realise and when I finally had the courage to look up, we had already reached the main road.
“W-what happened back there?”
“What do you mean?” Adrian asked casually and slid me a quick look.
“Didn’t you hear me? Didn’t you see that person in the middle of the road?!” I yelled hysterically.
“You need to calm down, Aurora. I didn’t see anyone on the road.”
He had to be lying. Adrian had seen the person on the road; I saw him increase his speed. I felt an ice-cold chill travel down my spine and, horrified, I looked at him.
“Did you just try to run someone over?”
“Aurora, do you hear how ridiculous you sound right now?”
“No, don’t you dare ‘Aurora’ me. I know what I saw. Don’t try to tell me that I’ve imagined everything again.”
Adrian didn’t reply. He just kept driving as if we’d never had the conversation. I started to panic for every second that ticked by. I didn’t know him that well; what if I was actually in danger? He had tried to run someone over. Or had he? Maybe it was my mind playing tricks on me again? It seemed to be happening a lot lately.
We reached the outskirts of Angel Falls, and when we pulled up to some traffic lights, I saw my only chance. Better to be safe than sorry.
I quickly ripped my seatbelt off and lunged towards the car door, but either I was too slow, or Adrian was too fast, because a hand grabbed my arm, holding me back. Then I heard a clicking sound, and he locked all the doors in the car. My blood turned to ice.
“Adrian,” I whispered. “Let me out…please,” I begged.
Adrian pulled the car over, then turned towards me.
“Aurora, I’m not trying to hurt you, okay?”
“T-that’s reassuring,” I stuttered, frozen in my seat.
“I’m sorry if I scared you, but I don’t want you running around in the dark all by yourself, especially since you seem a little bit out of it tonight.” There was a moment of silence, as we sat there watching each other. “I’m not going to hurt you. Do you understand me?” he said, this time in a slower, gentler tone.
I nodded carefully. “But what about the person on the road?”
“I honestly didn’t see anyone there. Are you sure it wasn’t a shadow, or an animal? I mean, wouldn’t you have noticed if I’d hit someone? Come on, who do you think I am?”
I stared at him, trying to grasp a sense of sanity, as this whole evening had been nothing more than a nightmare, with no explanations whatsoever. It scared me more than anything. But he was right: I definitely would have noticed if we had hit someone.
“You’re right, I don’t think we hit anyone. I obviously don’t think that you were trying to either, I just don’t know what’s going on tonight. I’m scared I’m losing my mind,” I confessed quietly.
He surprised me by putting his hand reassuringly on mine. I silently begged that he wouldn’t pull away. He didn’t say anything at first and I felt embarrassed that I had said something in the first place.
“I mean—” I started again, trying to offer another explanation, but was interrupted.
“You’re not crazy. You just had a bit of bad luck tonight. Don’t worry about it, okay?” He gave me a reassuring smile.
I nodded, beginning to feel somewhat relaxed.
“Are you ready to let me take you home?”
“Yep, I’m exhausted,” I confessed.
“And you don’t think I’m a crazy person?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m sorry. Of course, I don’t think you’re a crazy person.”
He chuckled. “Apology accepted. Now, let’s get you home to bed.”
We sat in a comfortable silence for the rest of the way. When he pulled up outside my house, I decided to give him one more chance to be honest with me.
“Is she your girlfriend, or not?”
He tilted his head to the side and looked at me, a little bit surprised by the change of topic. He smiled. “I thought I already answered that question?”
“Yes or no?” I asked, shortly. I was behaving braver than I really felt on the inside, but I was sick and tired of his games. I wanted an answer. I needed it.
He stroked his chin deliberately, like he was considering his answer before giving it to me. “No.”
Frustrated, I to
ok my seatbelt off and reached for the doorhandle. This time he didn’t stop me, he just sat there with a grin on his face, clearly amused by my visible frustration.
“Liar!” I called over my shoulder and jumped out of the car. I closed the door before he had a chance to reply, and rapidly ran up the stairs. I fumbled with the keys for a few seconds, before I let myself in the house and closed the door behind me. As soon as I knew I was safe inside, I felt the tears come. I rarely cried, but this time I couldn’t stop them. This whole evening had been too much for me.
“Aurora, is that you?” Mum called from upstairs.
I wiped the tears from my face and took a deep breath. “Yeah, it’s me. I’ll be right up – you can go back to bed,” I called back, praying she wouldn’t hear how upset I was.
I didn’t feel like talking to her. I couldn’t even understand my own feelings about everything right now. I was lucky too, because for the first time ever, she didn’t pick up on anything. Relieved, I went into the living room and turned on the TV. I didn’t want to risk going upstairs straight away just in case Mum was waiting to talk. The last thing I wanted to do was worry her. I comfortably crashed on the couch and stared at the TV.
I tried to go over the evening in my head. I had arrived with Lexi around seven; there was no question about that. I had spent some time in the kitchen with Julian, but we were interrupted, so, we couldn’t have been in there for more than maybe fifteen minutes. Then I had gone to the dance floor and, according to Adrian, fainted. Then I went back out to the kitchen for a few minutes, before I left the party to grab some fresh air.
It had been after midnight when Adrian had offered to take me home. That meant that I’d spent five hours at the party, but I could only remember maybe an hour of it, at most. Where did the rest of the time go? Where was I? Surely, I hadn’t been lying on the floor for four hours? There was no way everyone would just leave me there. Something didn’t add up. What else could have happened? Did Julian spike my drink? No. He had opened the can of Coke just in front of me. Besides, he would never do anything like that. Julian was a great guy. I had to find a better explanation than that.