A Beautiful Fate (13 page)

I bounced about a thousand questions off Andrew and he did his best to answer.

“What does the letter mean that you are at war?”

“Several of us Greeks, my family included, had to flee from Greece many, many years ago. We were dying at the hands of our own people who had crossed over to the side of bad, to the Kakos. The Kakos are essentially the descendants of Hades. They have made deals for several years with the Fates to spare them, to make them immortal. Your Father was the last to spare their lives and they will continue to live until you make the decision to end them; that is unless you die first. They know who you are, Ava, and they will find you soon enough. They will be coming for you.”

“You expect me to kill someone before they kill me. How am I supposed to do that?” I asked as we stood up to leave the study.

“I do not know the answer to that, Ava.”

We walked back out of the study and found everyone huddled up in the living room. Andrew had a smile on his face. Aggie stood up and walked to me cautiously.

“Is it her? Is she Baby?” Andrew nodded and she gasped and threw her arms around me. “Oh, Ava Baby, we have waited so long for you.” Aggie let me go and then put her hand on Ari’s cheek. “It makes sense now doesn’t it, Ari?” He nodded and I stared curiously at their little embrace.

Aggie moved her hand back from Ari’s cheek and took my face in both of her hands. She made a spitting sound and said “ftou, ftou, ftou.” Gianna immediately took Aggie’s place and she made the same gesture and said “ftou, ftou, ftou.” I looked over at Ari and he had a horrified grimace on his face.

I was confused about the whole evening, including the exchange of words I had just heard between Ari and his mother and the fact that his mother and aunt just pretended to spit on me. I was ready to go back to the dorm. Ari sensed my need to be alone and told his mom and sister that we were leaving. They looked disappointed, even though we had been there all day. Aggie gave me a hug goodbye.

“You promise me, Ava Baby, that you will come back.”

“Ok,” was my only response.

Ari walked me out to his car and opened the passenger side door for me. He climbed in his side and shut the door.

“What was that?”

“What was what exactly, Ava?” He looked a little tense.

“Ftou, ftou, ftou.” I mimicked his mother.

He visibly relaxed and smiled. “Some Greeks believe that spitting chases the devil and the bad luck away. That is why when someone talks about bad news like death the others slightly spit three times saying “ftou, ftou, ftou.”

I laughed at Ari. “That’s silly.”

“Indeed it is, Ava.” He beamed at me and squeezed my knee with his hand, sending the butterflies in my tummy in to a frenzy.

Ari seemed to be in a talking mood - answering my questions. I decided to try for one more. “What did your mother mean when she said ‘that makes sense now doesn’t it’?”

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and looked at me from the corner of his eye. He shook his head no, indicating that he would once again not be humoring any of my questions related to his own mysterious behavior.

We drove the rest of the way back to the dorms in silence. Every once in a while, Ari would look over at me, checking, I guess, to see if I was about to have a nervous breakdown. To be honest, I was welcoming the information I had gotten from Andy; it felt nice to finally have some answers.

The two of us walked off the elevators onto the twelfth floor right into all of the girls in the middle of the Sunday night movie. I groaned quietly and Ari shot me a little smile. Skylar shot daggers at me with her crystal blue eyes and Emily gave me a “get the hell over here now” look. I tried my best to ignore them both and went straight to my room. Ari stopped at my door before walking the one-foot distance to his and paused.

“Ava, if you need anything at all, I’ll be right here.”

“Thanks,” I replied before disappearing into my room. I threw on an old Bob Marley tee-shirt and some boxers and disappeared under my blankets. The shock had worn off and fear was beginning to set in. I got up out of bed and knocked on Ari’s door. He let me in his room with a happy, welcoming smile.

Chapter 8

The rest of the week went by in a haze. My mind was clouded with questions. My emotions bounced back and forth from fear and worry about what was going to happen to me and then to giddiness and butterflies whenever I thought of Ari. I lived more for the nights now than for the days. Admitting my preoccupation with Ari made me angry with myself, but there was no use denying it.

My nightmares were scary and confusing. In some of them, my mom died over and over. In others, Mia was the one getting in the front seat of the car with Dr. Spruce. I also had dreams about running – not running for the joy it has always given me, but running to get away from something or, maybe, find something. I never really knew. The worst dreams, though, were new ones. I dreamed about myself and in the dreams, I was crying and shivering on a bed with no sheets or blankets. My body was emaciated, the bony framework easily seen, and I pulled hard on my hair. I screamed as though being tortured, yet there was no one else with me in the space.

Ari came in to my room every single night. His first question was always the same: “Do you want to talk about it?”

My answer was always the same, “no,” and he never pushed me to tell him anything. He simply moved on to a new topic. Ari was an expert at coming up with thought-provoking conversation. He had a new non-threatening question for me every night.

Monday night he came to my room an hour after we said goodnight. He checked to make sure I was all right and sat a few feet away from me on the edge of my bed. He looked out my window.

“What things do you hate, Ava?”

I stopped and thought about it for a moment. “I hate not being in control.”

“That’s a good answer. I haven’t heard that one before. What I hate more than anything in the world is being lied to. Do you lie?”

“Yes,” I answered honestly. “Everyone tells lies, Ari.”

“Yeah, you’re right unfortunately.” He shifted his gaze from the window to me.

“I will not lie to you. Try not to lie to me, ok?”

“Ok.”

“Omitting the truth is a lie.”

“I agree.”

He smiled. “Good because I want to learn as much as I can about you, but if you lie, the game is pointless and I won’t play anymore.”

“How many people do you play this game with?”

He shook his head and smiled some more. “At midnight?” He looked at me from under his lashes. “Just you.” He moved on to another question down his list.

“What distracts you?”

“You distract me, Ari.” I didn’t need any time to think about my answer. In all my life, I have never found a stronger distraction than Ari Alexander.

His eyes shot up playfully and a very sly smile spread across his face.

“I’ll let you sleep then.” He stood up to leave and my heart sank.

“Sleep well, Ava. And if you need anything, you know where to find me.” He pointed at the wall between our two rooms and left.

****

After that late-night conversation, Ari and I bumped into each other a lot more often than we had in the beginning of my time at Dana Point. He started talking to me now and then in lit and even asked me a few questions about our assignments. On Wednesday, I think he thought I was getting tired of turning around to face him, so he moved his seat one forward and sat by me. I chewed half a fingernail off and bounced my leg around so much that our table started to shake. Ari had to put his hand on my leg to get me to stop. He had it there for just a moment, and he never took his eyes from the front of the room, but my heart did a little freak out anyway.

Thursday night, my floor gathered for the weekly party and I put into motion a plan I had come up with earlier. I announced to Emily with some wonder in my voice that Ari and I had discovered that our families had been friends quite some time ago. That, I added, explained why I was with him on Sunday. I think they believed me – whatever, my explanation would have to work for the time being because it was the only one I was going to offer. I glanced quickly around the commons, looking for Ari. He was talking with Rory by the pool table. We locked eyes for a moment and I smiled. He didn’t return my smile and quickly turned away. My heart crumbled, my stomach was assaulted with disappointment and I felt the threat of tears in the backs of my eyes. I lost patience with myself for feeling upset and made a lame excuse to go to bed early.

I sat in my bed and talked myself out of crying until I finally was able to find sleep. My dreams reached a new level of frightening that night. I had never been so scared... and the worst part was that upon waking, I couldn’t even remember what the dreams had been about. I woke up screaming and trying to paw my way out of some kind of bag. My pillows flew to the floor and I quickly covered my mouth with my hand to muffle the noise. Too late, my dorm door creaked open.

“Ava, are you alright?” Ari came in sounding tired and worried.

“I’m fine, well, not really fine... I had a bad dream that scared the whatever out of me. But I don’t want to talk about it,” I added as I saw him start to ask a question. The clock on my phone showed two-thirty in the morning. I definitely needed more sleep, but I knew from experience that sleep had just removed itself from the realm of the possible. “Great,” I sighed, mostly to myself.

Ari took a step in to my room.

“Stop.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I don’t want you in here.”

“Why?”

“I thought were passed all of this evasiveness, Ari. I smiled at you and you acted as if I wasn’t even there. I don’t want this… whatever this is,” I said pointing back and forth between the two of us. “I am sick of you. I am sick of feeling this way, like I’m not worthy of your friendship.”

“Oh, God, Ava…. I’m so sorry. It’s complicated. I am working some issues out right now. Just please, Ava, please, give me a little bit of time.”

“Why can’t we be friends?” I demanded.

“We can!”

“Friends smile at each other, Ari. They say “hi” in the hallways!”

He smiled, a really big, beautiful smile and said, “hi!”

“It doesn’t count when we are in a dark room at two thirty in the morning.”

“You are right. Can I just have a little more time?”

“Time for what?” I snapped.

“Just time… please.”

“Whatever, Ari.”

Ari walked the rest of the way into my room, grabbed a discarded pillow off the ground and took a seat on my bed. He leaned his back against the wall, put the pillow on his lap, and motioned for me to lie down. I did so very hesitantly. As soon as my head hit the pillow, he began to move his fingers ever so lightly down my cheeks and my neck. He took one of my hands, held it in his, and traced little circles in my palm. He started to talk softly, nearly inaudibly.

“What is your favorite color?” The question brought a smile to my face. It was so normal and unassuming. Most the time his questions were hard and required so much thought and careful truth.

I couldn’t help but play his game. “Gray,” I answered honestly.

“Oh, come on!” he said with a laugh. “Gray isn’t a color.” I shrugged and he moved on when I didn’t give him a substitute answer.

“Favorite movie?”

I thought about that for a second, and then answered, “
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
.”

“Good one,” he said approvingly, still moving his fingers like feathers across my skin.

“Yours?” I asked with a yawn.

“
Beetlejuice
,” Ari answered quickly, and I laughed.

“That’s the best answer ever.”

“Well, that’s because
Beetlejuice
is an awesome movie.”

I rolled over to my side shaking with laughter and Ari moved on.

“Favorite book?”

“
Les Misérables
.” I answered, calming back down.

“Alright. Odd choice, though,” he said, more quietly than before.

“Favorite band?”

“That one is easy,” I said with a sleepy smile, “
Vampire Weekend
hands down.”

“No way! Me too,” he gave a small laugh, and then continued with the questions.

He learned that my favorite food is a tie between peanut butter and green bananas and that I am a diehard Cubs fan and I like to watch college basketball. He learned I am a crab in the morning if I do not have a cup of black coffee and I hate it when my toes get cold. He started to ask more personal questions the more comfortable he became.

“You don’t like it when people get too close to you.”

“That’s not a question,” I said, astounded by his perception.

“No, you’re right it’s not, but it’s true. But you didn’t seem to mind when my family hugged you.”

“No,” I said, nearly silent, agreeing with his observation.