Pride x Familiar (14 page)

Should I decide by flipping a coin? Wait, I had
no coins. Physical currency was no longer used and hadn’t been used
in centuries.

I frowned. Did they just ignore each other?

Caprice actually looks angry. I didn’t know she
could make such a face.

Ah, this wasn’t good. Not good at all!

I held my head in my hands.

No choice. I’d have to muster the courage to
speak to him. The problem was finding the right moment to approach
him. Should I send him a message via school information network?
No, he’d probably ignore it. He’d been ignoring me for the whole
week.

This had to be done face to face to ensure he’d
at least listen to me.

I ran my fingers through my hair. “Ah, what the
Hell should I do?”

I felt a tap on my shoulder and jumped up and
out of my chair in fright.

Caelum was standing beside my table.

I screamed. “Ca—Caelum?”

He looked shocked by my reaction and retreated a
step.

I swallowed quickly and said, “Sorry. You just
surprised me. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

He nodded slowly, then straightened as though on
guard. “Haruka…can we talk?”

Talk? Did he say talk? Yes, of course. This was
good. No, this was perfect. I just needed to slip a warning into
the conversation.

I noticed I was biting a nail.

Caelum noticed too. He gave me a really
concerned look.

If I kept acting nervous I was going to drive
him away.

I took a deep breath to calm my hammering heart.
I noticed he had his carry-bag at his hip, with the straps over his
right shoulder.

“Going home?” I asked.

“Yeah…but I’d…I’d like to talk to you
first.”

I looked around. The classroom was emptying
pretty quickly of its students. Siobhan and Alistair were watching
me from the front of the room. They had their carry-bags at their
hips, but looked uncertain as to whether they should leave ahead of
me, or wait for me.

I turned to Caelum. “Could you give me a
moment?”

He nodded cautiously. “Sure….”

Jeezes, he was acting like I was a bomb with a
hair trigger fuse.

I approached Siobhan and Alistair. “You guys go
on ahead. I might be a while.”

Siobhan eyed me suspiciously. “Are you going to
be okay?”

“I’ll be fine. Thanks for asking.”

Alistair was staring at Caelum. “Just be
careful, Haruka. You don’t know what he’s capable of.”

“Alistair, he’s my childhood friend. I know
exactly what he’s like.”

She shook her head. “Haruka, he’s a Familiar
now. You knew the old him. This is the new Caelum Desanto.”

Siobhan added, “Just remember, Familiars are
like vampires. Be careful around him.”

I felt my stomach tighten.

Siobhan was right. Familiars had the capacity to
drink blood and draw strength from it. A Familiar that drank from
an Aventis would draw strength from the Symbiote. But the fact they
could do so was something that unnerved and frightened both
Regulars and Aventis, though I’d heard that some Aventis actually
found the act pleasurable.

I swallowed, and nodded a little less
confidently than I thought I would. “I’ll—I’ll be fine. I trust
Caelum.”

Siobhan and Alistair shared a look, then Siobhan
faced me and said, “We’ll wait for you at the shoe lockers.”

“Ah…okay. But I might be a while.”

“We’ll wait,” Siobhan repeated firmly.

I exhaled slowly. “Thank you.”

Alistair said, “Ask him about the lipstick.”

I jerked back. “I can’t do that. No, no way. Now
isn’t the time for that.”

With a quick wave to my friends, I walked back
in a hurry to my smart desk where Caelum was waiting and looking
faintly uncomfortable.

“Let’s go,” I said.

“Uh, where to? The rooftop?”

“No, the rooftop courtyard is automatically
locked after lunch break.” I finished packing my carry-bag with my
belongs, then slipped the straps over my right shoulder. “I know a
place.”

I led him to the southern courtyard, and to one
of the two gardens that bordered it. During lunch break students
would sit on the benches or the shaded grass and eat their lunches.
But after class, I had noticed students tended to avoid this one
garden. I had no idea why but it suited my purpose just fine.

Caelum was looking around curiously. “You
Aventis have it really good hear. Nothing like our old school for
Regulars.”

I stopped walking, turned and looked at him.

I frowned inwardly at his words of distinction.
“There are four gardens like this one. Two in the southern
courtyard, and two in the northern one. There are also gardens
around the club buildings on the south-west side of the
school.”

His mouth made a few odd shapes as he gazed at
the garden surrounding us. “Is that so….”

“Caelum?”

He looked off into the distance for a long
while. I was tempted to call out to him again, but I chose to give
him a little more time.

He swallowed noticeably. “Haruka, I’m sorry. I
didn’t know about the lipstick.”

“Eh? Ah, it’s okay. I don’t have a problem with
it. You’re free to kiss whoever you like.”

“No, I didn’t kiss anyone. She caught me by
surprise—ah.”

He stopped quickly, then started to run his
fingers through his hair in a panic. Just as quickly his hands came
to a stop and he looked at me.

“Haruka, I’m sorry…sorry for running away.”

I felt my throat grow a little tight as I
realized what he was talking about.

“Haruka, I’m sorry. I saw you and I didn’t know
how to deal with you.”

“Deal with me?”

“I mean, I didn’t know what to do or say.”

The tightness in my throat grew. I forced my
voice through it. “Caelum, how long have known each other?”

“Ah, ten years?”

“Why should now be any different from all the
times we’ve shared in the past?”

“Because you’re an Aventis and I’m a Familiar.”
He said it softly yet with no room for argument.

I took a deep breath. “Then why can’t we start
over, as Aventis and Familiar? The Prides have no law preventing us
from associating with one another. And there’s nothing in the
student handbook that says we can’t talk to each other.” I shook my
head slowly. “There’s no law that says we can’t be friends.”

He was looking at me with a steady gaze. “You’re
being naïve, Haruka.”

I inhaled sharply.

He shoved his hands into trouser pockets.
“Familiars are bonded to the Prides. We’re servants to the Prides,
but with more privileges than Regulars.”

“I know that.”

“You’re Pride is Avenir. My affiliated Pride is
Lanfear.”

I swallowed a little. “Yes, I know that.”

“Avenir and Lanfear don’t mix.”

I sighed. “It’s not as bad as you make it sound.
I’ve looked into the situation with both Prides. There’s no
outright animosity between them. In fact they have an amicable
relationship here in Pharos.” I indicated the Academy buildings
beyond the garden. “Here at Galatea, there’s no trouble between the
two Prides.”

“Because they keep away from each other.”

“That isn’t true….”

“Our social standing is different.”

“That hasn’t stopped people in the past.”

“You mean people in love….”

I thought my heart was going to burst apart the
moment he said those words, and he said them while looking straight
into my eyes.

He was challenging me to reply with a
counter.

Or was he expecting me to agree?

I had trouble meeting his gaze.

Caelum sighed softly, almost lost in the breeze.
“Haruka…tell me the truth.”

I struggled to get a single word out, yet he
remained so calm. “What truth?”

“Did you ever see me as more than a friend? What
was I to you?”

My throat tightened painfully, and I couldn’t
reply.

Long seconds went by, until he eventually
chuckled lightly under his breath. He turned his face away. “Sorry.
Forget I asked.”

My heart was beating painfully in my chest. It
was just like that day seven months ago when he bid farewell to our
friendship. I was reliving that pain all over again.

Caelum regarded our surroundings. “I made a mess
of things. All those years in school, I made a mess of things for
you.”

I managed a hoarse whisper. “What do you
mean?”

“You were popular, Haruka. There were so many
guys that wanted to confess to you. So many guys that wanted to
approach you.”

He wasn’t telling me anything new. Why was he
bringing this up now?

He shook his head slowly. “I was asked so many
times to put in a good word for you because they all saw us as
childhood friends and nothing more. As far as they were concerned,
the only reason you hung around me was because of that. Why else
would a beautiful girl be friends with me? It pissed me off that
what they said was true.”

I frowned at him.

He muttered loudly, “I got fed up being their
errand boy. That landed me in a few fights.”

“I know….”

I was the one that would patch him up before
classes resumed whenever he returned to the classroom like the
walking wounded.

He laughed bitterly. “You’d ask me why, and I’d
tell you those guys weren’t good enough for you.”

I nodded slowly.

He snorted. “Some of those guys were a lot
better than me. Some of them would have looked good beside you.
Some of those guys, I think I actually approved of.”

“…what…?”

“But I was jealous.”

My eyes widened for a rapid heartbeat.
“Huh?”

“I was jealous of them. I was jealous of every
guy that confessed to you, or approached you in a way that made
their intentions clear.”

I couldn’t stop myself frowning. “Why?”

“Because they had more courage than me. I was
envious of their resolve. Then I’d think of my situation and I had
no choice but to accept the truth.”

“What do you mean? What truth?”

“That we were only childhood friends, and that I
had more to risk than they did. It wasn’t a case of just crash and
burn for me. It wasn’t a game for me. If I lost, then I lost for
good and it wasn’t just a rejection. It was the end of what we had
together as
friends
.”

“Caelum, you….”

He gave me a nod. “Yeah, I thought about it
countless times. I thought about it every time I heard some guy had
asked you out and been shot down.”

“Why didn’t you?”

He looked at me in disbelief. “I just told you
why.”

I looked at him stupidly. “Did you really think
I would reject you?”

Caelum was quiet for a moment before he blurted
out, “Of course I did. Why do you think I never asked you?”

“So you’d already decided on the outcome by
yourself.”

“I already knew the outcome.”

I clenched my hands and couldn’t stop my arms
from trembling. “Do you know how tiring it was to reject each and
every guy that came up to me?”

He shook his head. “No, but I did try to save
you the trouble.”

I growled in my throat. “You would have saved me
the trouble if you’d just told me how you felt.”

“I couldn’t tell you—”

“Because you’re a coward.”

He blanched, then swallowed a heartbeat later.
“I had no choice.”

I leaned back and yelled up at the sky.

“Haruka?”

“You are impossible! You are so impossible to
deal with.”

I was hyperventilating.

Why was I blaming him? I was the same. I fell
into the same trap he did. I had the same reasons he did for not
confessing. In fact, I was hard set on believing he should be the
one to make the first move.

I should have never listened to all those stupid
advice columns.

Why the Hell did I read those idiotic magazines?
Was I looking for a miracle solution to the problem?

I pressed down on my chest.

This was my problem. I should have fixed it
myself rather than listening to someone else’s advice.

I should have told him how I felt.

I gasped.

Caelum was standing over me, his arms on my
arms. “Haruka? Haruka what’s wrong?”

I tried pushing him away but he was stronger
than me.

What? I’m an Aventis and he’s a Familiar.
Shouldn’t I be the stronger one?

“Let me go,” I pleaded.

“Not until you calm down.”

Again I growled in my throat. “Stop acting so
mature. This is your fault after all.”

“Huh?”

“It’s because you never told me the truth.”

He dropped his hands from my arms. His
expression grew neutral, unreadable. “You haven’t answered my
question.”

I blinked at him dumbly. What question? I tried
thinking back to the start of the argument. What had he asked me?
Why couldn’t I remember?

Caelum saved me from floundering through my
short term memory.

“Haruka, did you ever see me as more than just a
friend?”

Ah…that question.

His eyes were locked onto mine.

No running away this time. It had finally come
to this point, and Caelum wanted an answer.

I opened my mouth, but no air came out. No
sound. No words.

Why? Why didn’t my voice work? Damn it, not
now!

I tried again without success.

Caelum turned away, and my heart sank.

My reaction had hurt him. He took my inability
to reply for an answer.

And so he turned away.

But he wasn’t moving away. In fact, he was
standing in front of me looking toward the trees at the far end of
the garden.

I peeked around him, and my breath caught.

A girl stood at the opposite entrance to the
garden.

A girl with long, flowing locks of golden hair,
a large bust, and enviable figure eight body topping a pair of
slender, shapely legs.

The Princess of the Seniors.

Prissila Ventiss Raynar.