Intrigue (26 page)

Chapter 21: Reconciliation

The second week post break-up was both easier and harder—all for the same reason. Thrace tried to disappear from my life. He wasn’t in school on Monday. He didn’t show up to karate class all week long. In journalism, he got out of class for his assignments. At lunch, he, Justin, and Spart were absent from our table. While his absence made the whole social scene less awkward, it made him much harder to stalk. Several people said they had smelled alcohol on him a couple times during school. As much as I hated that idea, it was better than him being the boy toy for a demigod. I took to showing up at his house every day only to get short conversations with one-word responses from Thrace. One time I could smell whiskey on him. When I confronted him on it, he started even staying away from his house until after my curfew. His mom said that he was at Justin’s house most of the time. Thrace’s mom seemed almost as devastated as Thrace was about the break up. We talked one day when he wasn’t home.

She asked me, “Can’t you two try to work things out? You were so perfect together.”

I looked into her kind and gentle eyes—Thrace’s eyes and pointed out the obvious, “Honey, I am trying to work things out with Thrace. He is the one avoiding me.”

Honey just shook her head and remarked, “Thrace doesn’t think you are here to work things out. Thrace thinks you are trying to get his blessing to date someone else. He said that he couldn’t stand by and watch you date another guy. He would rather stay away than stay friends under those circumstances.”

Flock! It shouldn’t surprise me that he knew exactly what I was doing, but I needed him as my friend. Apparently, that was a selfish desire. Was I driving him to drink? I was setting him up for more pain and suffering, and I had not even realized it. I was trying to force him to watch me move on with someone else because I needed him.
What was I doing?
“I’m sorry to keep bothering you, Honey. I will stay away if that is what Thrace wants.”

Honey gave me a hug and replied, “Of course, that is not what Thrace wants. Thrace wants you to forgive him for doing whatever he did. He said that no amount of balloons and concert tickets could make up for what he did—although he did not tell me what that was. Can’t you just forgive him, Calli. Start fresh?”

“I wish it was just about forgiveness and starting fresh, Honey. Of course, I forgave him. We’ve had the same problems for the last three months. We just want different things—he’s a guy and guys expect,” Honey cut me off before I got any further into that statement.

“I think I get it. I’m sure not all of it, but I am also sure he would be willing to wait for you, dear.”

“Not any more. I’m the ‘good girl.’ What he seems to want right now is the party girl,” I delicately explained.

“Men just don’t get it sometimes, Calli. I am sure Thrace will wise up, and then you can work on it. I will tell him you stopped by, and don’t be a stranger just because you and Thrace are no longer together.”

I gave her a sad smile, “Honey, don’t worry, you can’t get rid of me that easily.”

I left Thrace’s house, and it almost felt like another chapter in my life was ending. The pain from the break-up had dulled, but this new pain in my heart was far from dull. By the time Friday rolled around, the short glimpses I was getting of Thrace alarmed me because he looked like shite. And Justin and Spart looked even worse if possible. The gossip mill at our school was out of control with rumors of Fight Clubs, brawls at raves, and other equally stupid stunts, but it was all pure speculation. Rafe seemed as concerned as I was and promised to use some of his god-like powers to sift through the rumors and see if he could find out what was up with my ex. I gave Rafe a deadline of Sunday night to figure out what the story was with Thrace, or it was going to be Intervention time like on A&E.

Thank heavens after the Fright Night weekend, I talked Jazz and Key into a girls only marathon. I had even talked Clio into flying up for the weekend. It was a slumber party, shopping, spa day, secret telling, chick flick extravaganza weekend. Rafe was going to follow Thrace around constantly over the weekend to figure out what was up, and I desperately needed a distraction while that was going on. We headed to the airport to pick up Clio Friday night. The four of us had been friends since middle school, but we were always paired off. Jazz and Key were BFF as were Clio and I. When I lost my other half, I had substituted Thrace as best I could into my life, but there was always a hole that only Clio could fill.

I waited for Clio with a sign that said Clio: BFF. When she saw me, I yelled in delight and gave her a big hug. Jazz and Key were circling so we didn’t have to park. When we got to the car, both of the girls jumped out to group hug Clio. On the ride to Key’s house, Clio got to hear about Key’s new and improved boyfriend checklist and Tre. Clio laughed and asked all the right questions about him. Luckily, we were saving Jazz’s love life for after we got to Key’s house and ordered food. We had set up her basement as our girl fortress. We had a ton of chick flicks from all different decades. We would begin with the John Hughes films from the 80s: Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, then we would move on to the 90s, and so on. Key ordered pizza, cheesy bread, cinnasticks, wings, and loads of caffeine from the pizza place with the hottest delivery guys. Then, we all changed into our pjs to settle down for a real gossip session while we waited for the food. We caught Clio up on all our classmates. The pizza arrived, and it took all four of us to carry down the goodies to the basement.

During dinner, it was Jazz’s turn to walk Clio through her love life. Although this topic could take hours, Jazz gave Clio the cliff notes. Luckily, I had filled Clio in on most of the drama of my love life minus the super-natural portions of it. She still had some questions that she would randomly fire at me during various portions of the movies. She definitely wanted to meet Rafe while she was here. Not even five minutes later, Tre, Rafe, and Jazz’s new boy toy snuck down into our girl cave and scared the flock out of us.

We introduced the boys to Clio, and she seemed fascinated by Rafe and vice versa. While Tre and Jazz’s boy toy finished the rest of our food, Clio cornered Rafe and interrogated him. He held up well and even charmed the socks off of her. They seemed to banter easily and had Clio lived in Detroit I might have started feeling a little insecure. The boys started to settle in, but Key was adamant that it was time for them to depart. We walked the guys upstairs but managed to say our good-byes in three different places.

On the top of the stairs, Rafe entwined his hand in mine as he remarked, “I can see why you and Clio are plane friends. She is very special like you.”

I smiled and let a little of my jealousy show, “Yes, you two seemed to really hit it off.”

Rafe gave me his most wicked smile and observed, “She could actually give Jazz a run for her money on military interrogation techniques, although Clio is a little more subtle. I think under normal circumstances you would both be the perfect examples that still waters run deep.”

I nodded my head, “Yeah, we were both pretty shy when we first met. I had Thrace as a friend, but she was my first true girl friend. Even though Thrace was a year older, he protected us as best he could. I think that is one reason why losing Thrace has hurt so much. He was one of the few people that I trusted. He actually picked up the day-to-day slack when I lost Clio. Thank you for being so patient with me during my mourning period. It has not gone unappreciated. However, I need you out there protecting Thrace, not in here checking me out in my pjs.”

He shot me his mischievous grin, leaned down, and kissed my forehead, “Go have fun with your friends. You needed this weekend. I will go find Thrace.”

“I definitely needed this—more than I can even tell you,” I responded as I got up on my tiptoes and planted a short and sweet kiss on his mouth.

As I let him go, his steamy gaze made me shiver as he pulled my hand to his lips and kissed my pulse point on my wrist, “Til Sunday, Siren.”

She tilted her head and seemed to ponder the question, “He is so far from your typical high school guy he might as well be a different species.”

I was totally shocked that she understood that after only a short conversation with Rafe like I had. “Now you see what all the drama was about this fall. Trying to work things out with Thrace and stay away from Rafe at his most charming was literally hell on earth.”

She came over and hugged me. “Don’t worry. Let Thrace lick his wounds and then he’ll come back. He always had a soft spot for you. I was happy when he finally realized that he had the best thing in world right next door to him, but I always wondered if he was really right for you.”

Jazz and Key came downstairs before I got to answer Clio. Since my love life was now on the table, they got to ask more questions about Rafe and our fight last weekend as well as the timeline for our first date. I finally told them as close to the truth as possible. “There is another guy, a college guy, that works at the DUA that might be interested in me. You remember Delian from the Casino Night at the DUA?”

I got interrupted then with a squeal from Jazz, “The hottie-teacher-guy is interested in you, and you aren’t all over that. Girl, what are you thinking? Rafe might be dinner, but that boy is dessert. Can’t you date them both? You are a free woman right now—play the field!” That led to both Jazz and Key pulling out their phones trying to find the pic of the hottie-teacher-guy for Clio. When they finally did, Clio’s mouth literally dropped opened and she yelled, “That dude looks like hottie-Prison Break guy! Hottie-Prison Break guy is hitting on you and you are not all over that?”

Key turned all serious again. “Yeah, explain to us exactly what happened last Saturday with Rafe and hottie-Prison Break-teacher guy.”

I went on to explain the Rafe vs. Delian dilemma without the supernatural details as well as my bizzaro reaction to Delian. Then I finally just shook my head at them. “Ladies, he’s the deep end of the ocean. He’s TROUBLE—not just with a Capital T, but in ALL CAPS. And as much as I would love to sneak a guy friend under my parents’ radar, my dad would actually get his gun out and do more than clean it for this guy.”

“Finally, my girl is talking sense. I still say you should play the field with both dinner and dessert, but you’re much more of a one boy at a time kind of girl,” Jazz acknowledged.

“Plus, dinner and dessert are pretty good friends. What caused our argument was that Rafe seemed perfectly happy to give up his chance at me and let Delian take his shot. It totally pissed me off. He was willing to let months of flirting with me drop because his buddy showed an interest.”

Clio shook her head and commented, “Are you sure he wasn’t giving up his shot at you because you were showing more of an interest in Delian. My guess was that he was jealous, and it’s easier to walk away for guys sometimes than man up and fight for what they want.”

I laughed at Clio’s observation and said, “I have missed you, Oh-Wise-One!”

The rest of the evening was spent watching movies and discussing topics that weren’t my love life, which greatly relaxed me.

Saturday was a boy-free blast. First, we road tripped down to Toledo again so Clio could experience the Ahava Spa and Wellness Center like we did for my birthday. Then, we literally shopped until we dropped at the mall. We headed back to my house with all our purchases and supplies from Key’s house. My parents were excited to see Clio again even though my dad did grumble about being kicked out of his own den for the evening. Mom tried to hang out with us for a bit before I shooed her away. We were now on John Tucker Must Die and since no one wanted to sleep we started She’s the Man at about 2am. Hey, Channing Tatum was one thing we could all stay awake for, and it was a Shakespeare remake. We only had two more hours before Clio had to leave, so we let her pick the last movie. She picked Scream, so I think we definitely gave my parents a pretty loud wake up call.

The four of us wedged into the back of my dad’s Taurus on the way back to the airport because we didn’t want to be separated. I was almost in tears as I said good-bye again to my BFF. I finally let her out of the hug and announced, “Tell your parents that I miss them, and they suck.”

“Don’t worry, C. I’ll be back soon. Call me and keep me posted!”

Even though I was functioning on fumes, I still got dragged to church with my parents after we dropped off Jazz and Key. When we got back, I had a surprise waiting for me. All I wanted to do was come home and sleep, but Thrace was sitting in one of our lawn chairs in the back of the house. My parents seemed pleased to see him. They greeted him warmly as they got out of the car. I lagged behind, a bit unsure of what my reception would be. Mom hugged him, and dad shook his hand as he said, “Good to see you, Thrace.”

Thrace lost a bit of his edginess as he was back in familiar territory with my family and me. “Sounds good.” We all headed into the house. I raced upstairs and changed into my traditional workout garb. My dad seemed disgruntled that he only got to talk with Thrace for a few minutes. As much as I tried to fill the void of a son for my dad, Thrace also had taken that role over the years. Dad graciously decided that I needed this time with Thrace more and went to the den to watch the Lions get massacred again. “Don’t be a stranger, Thrace. We missed you around here,” was his parting shot. My mom shook her head in agreement as she pecked him on the cheek.