Prophecy Girl (27 page)

She felt the envelope in her pocket:

MEET ME AT THE BALCONY. MIDNIGHT.

She looked at the shamrock clock on the wall. It was already midnight. There would be no meet. The note was from Devin, there was no doubt, and because of his declaration, and Lucas’ rage, they wouldn’t be seeing each other anytime soon.

Sara was assisted by the staff and the professors. Headmaster Quinn, with Coach Brennan, a few Leprechauns, and Liam and Finn, were dragging Lucas to the cafeteria.

“I’ll kill you, motherfucker!” He bellowed at Devin one last time, before his curses and shouts were silenced down the arched hallway, into the cafeteria.

“What happened?” asked a familiar voice.

Eva looked up from where she was sitting to see Colin. He crouched down, so that they were eye level. 

“Lucas and Devin got into a fight.”

He snorted. “I can tell that. Why?”

Meg leaned over, grinning. “Devin’s in love with Eva! Can you believe that?! All this time and he’s been in love with her! Isn’t it romantic?! And he did it in song! In front of the whole school!”

“I think we should go see how Liam and Finn are doing,” Corrine said, giving Eva a sympathetic look.

When Corrine tugged at Meg’s arm, the bouncy redhead said, “What? What? What’s going on? Why are you pulling me away?” 

Corrine finally succeeded in dragging the confused redhead away.

Eva turned back to Colin. He refused to look at her, staring down at the floor.

“Colin…” She trailed off, not knowing what to say.

It was news to her too. The disappearances, the doubt, the anguish, when all the time, he liked her, hell, he loved her. It was so much to take in, especially since the aftermath of his confession.

Colin slowly raised his head. “Now I see. I could tell, you know? I could tell when you first arrived. You spoke of Devin, nonchalantly, but you liked him, didn’t you?”

“I-I didn’t know what to think of him. He would never speak to me. Never would be around me. It was like I disgusted him, but it frustrated me so much that I couldn’t stop thinking about him. And I wondered, since Leprechauns disappear when they get nervous, that maybe he was nervous around me, because he liked me.”

It was a long speech, but she was glad to tell someone.

“I like you, and I don’t disappear,” he said softly.

She shook her head. “I just…I can’t deal with this right now.”

“COLIN!” Sara’s voice rang out for him. “COLIN! COME HELP ME WITH DEVIN!”

He hesitated, but finally stood up, and gave Eva a pained look, before walking to Devin, still lying on the hardwood floor. He helped him to his feet, and Devin laid his arm around Colin’s shoulders. 

“I got you, c’mon,” Colin said, taking care to walk slowly, heading to the east wing.

There was a small nursing station at either wing, filled with bandages, ointments, and other rudimentary instruments. Eva was afraid that he’d have to go to the hospital, needing stitches, but when the headmaster approached—who looked harried from Lucas’ behavior, still shouting in the cafeteria—he said, “Not that bad. Could’ve been worse. If an ambulance is required, let me know.”

Sara nodded and walked ahead with Colin and Devin trailing behind. The headmaster sighed and went back into the cafeteria. Eva looked around and noticed that she was all alone. Tables were turned over. Chairs were upside down. Presents were all over the floor. And somehow the red and green lights from the show had been turned back on, flashing all over the Commons Area. It had been an appalling Christmas Eve concert. And Eva couldn’t help feeling that it was all her fault. 

“Gorgeous,” Colin had called her. She was so gorgeous that three guys wanted her, but she didn’t see herself at that, and laughed aloud at the ridiculous of it. Then she started to cry, slowly walking among the debris. Liam’s black cowboy hat was on the floor, presumably knocked off during the melee. She wiped her tears, picked it up, and held it to her chest. Next, she found Corrine’s trampoline, and held onto the handle, allowing the weight of it to drag her arm downwards. It kept knocking against her legs as she walked back up to her room, with Lucas’ shouts and curses in the distance.

Inside her room, she found Meg and Corrine. The bathroom door was closed, and she could hear Bree crying, but it wasn’t from a vision—it was from a broken heart. Eva hoped that another fight wouldn’t start out, because she had never been good at that, and always relied on Soledad to defend her.

“You’re back!” Corrine exclaimed, smiling, jumping off her bed.

Eva ignored her joy, handing her the hat and the trampoline. 

“What was your gift?” Eva asked Meg.

Meg grinned, shooting out her wrist to show off a silver-hearted bracelet. “It’s from Finn. He was my Secret Santa. Can you believe it?”

Eva laughed, despite her sadness. “Yeah, there were a lot of things that happened tonight that could be described as
unbelievable
.”

She went to her bed and sat down, just staring at the green carpet. Soon, Corrine was at her side, with Meg on the other. 

“Are you okay?” Corrine asked, holding Eva’s hand.

Meg held Eva’s other hand. “I can’t believe it! Devin’s been in love—”

“
Yes
,” Corrine interrupted, agitated. “We’ve established that.”

Meg groaned. “I know that! I’m just saying! It’s—”

“Unbelievable,” Eva repeated, continuing to stare at the carpet.

“If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s okay,” Corrine said.

“I’d rather not,” she said. “I just want to go to bed.”

She wasn’t tired at all, but she wanted to be alone.

Meg and Corrine nodded and left her. Bree finally came out of the bathroom, having changed into her pink velvet pajamas that matched her puffy eyes. She took one glance at Eva, muttered something, and threw herself down on her bed.

“Turn the damn lights out!” she shouted, muffled from underneath all the layers of cloth where she hid.

Meg did instantly. The only light that remained came from their laptops, and soon, all three roommates closed theirs shut. But before Eva did, she looked at the time. It was one o’clock, well after Devin’s note to meet with her on the balcony. But she knew he wouldn’t be there. He was being tended to by Sara, and perhaps being interrogated by the headmaster. She assumed that Colin had bolted as soon as Devin was in safe hands. He didn’t want to be around the guy who sang his love for Eva. 

She wondered if Lucas had calmed down. From his attack on Devin, Eva had no doubt that Lucas could be bound to this dangerous, cunning, and powerful warlock with dark designs that Muirgen and Aghamora had spoken of—but why did he allow himself to be taken so easily? What else was going on?

She wanted her ancestors to help, but she didn’t know how to contact them, and from their last encounter, the ghosts didn’t seem too willing to offer up any valuable information. They couldn’t even tell her if Lucas was the one, even though it was a high probability. 

Eva was confused and her head hurt, mostly from the Vodka punch, but also from the anxiety of everything crashing down around her. But she really wanted to see Devin. She
had
to see Devin.  

Under the covers, fully dressed in the same outfit she’d worn to the concert, she scanned her roommates. Meg was asleep, her chest slowly rising, and then falling. Corrine—such a light sleeper—was passed out with her mouth hung open. Bree was snoring. 

This was her chance. Eva slowly crept off the bed and out of the room. 

Someone had cleaned up the Commons Area, with only the Christmas tree lights near the entrance relit. She wondered if Colin had done it and wanted to see him—to see if he was all right. But she stopped herself and turned to the east wing, to the Leprechaun side where Devin might be, waiting for her on the balcony, all bloodied and bruised. She hadn’t heard an ambulance, and assumed he was okay, but worried all the same. 

She looked up at the shamrock clock on the wall. If he was waiting, she was now two hours late.

She remembered the balcony from her first day at Green Clover Academy. It was in the east wing part of the school, and as she’d found out later, it led from an abandoned room on a vacated floor where the Four Leaf Clovers practiced. 

Silently, but quickly, she ascended the narrow stairwells with lights from the chandeliers flickering as she passed. Finally, she made it to the fourth floor. It was deserted, as she had expected, but the eerie silence disturbed her. At the end of the hallway was a door, slightly open, and she could see a light.

Slowly, she advanced to the door. It creaked as she pulled it open, and she slipped in, leaving the door just a tad open the way it was before. The only light in the room came from a naked yellow bulb in the center of the ceiling that granted some illumination to a set of drums and a few guitar cases. 

In the distance, a natural looking light beckoned her to come closer.    

It was the moon, shining down on the balcony where someone—she wasn’t quite sure who—was lying on a green lounge chair. His left hand clutched a beer, holding it down on the gray stone balcony floor. His right hand held a cigarette that she couldn’t see, but witnessed the smoke and smelled the tobacco. The snow had ceased, with a slight chill in the air, but she was hot all over, even in her navy short-sleeved tee. The guy lying down wore a T-shirt too, but it was either navy like Lucas’, or black like Devin’s.   

Still, she wasn’t sure who it was. She didn’t know where Lucas was and wondered if Devin had let slip about the note, sometime during the night, while she was waiting in her bedroom. And now Lucas was here where she expected Devin. No doubt he would be angry, ready to attack her, in his maddened state.

When the mystery Leprechaun moved, he winced, and let go of his beer, to hold his side. Now she knew it was Devin. He was in pain from Lucas’ attack. 

She tiptoed to the back of his chair. “Don’t vanish,” she said in a loud, desperate voice that surprised her.

He was surprised too and almost knocked his beer over when he scrambled to get up. Quickly, he grabbed the bottle before all of its contents spilled out, and then he got up from the chair. He turned to her and smiled, blushing. Then he threw his cigarette in the bottle, extinguishing it, and set it on the ledge of the balcony.

He smoothed his fingers through his long black hair, brushing it back. She stepped closer and saw his face under the moonlight. His left eye was bruised and swollen shut. Cuts and other bruises were all over his face. His lip was cut, but the blood had long dried. 

She closed the gap between them, crying, and reached up to hold her hand against his face, gently touching. “Why aren’t you in the hospital?” she asked, looking at his one open eye, sparkling green.

“Shhh…no,” he urged, gently taking her hand in both of his. “I’m okay. I’m okay.”

She had heard him talk, only once, and sang for most of the night. But his words, his communication with her right now was like the sun breaking through the clouds after a cold thunderstorm.

He kissed both her hands. “Leprechauns can take a lot,” he explained. “It hurts like hell for some time, but I’ll recover. Don’t worry.”

She nodded, hoping he was telling her the truth, instead of trying to make her feel better. “How long have you been waiting on me?”

He wrapped his arms around her waist. “Ever since the first day you arrived.”

She shook her head, crying at his sweet words. “No,” she said, wiping her tears away, “I mean how long have you been waiting
out here
?”

He laughed. “Not long. I didn’t expect you to show, given everything that happened.”

“I had to come.” She gently wrapped her arms around his back, trying not to hurt him. “I had to.”

He smiled. “So you like me too?”    

“I love you,” she admitted, but she wasn’t scared of her confession. It felt natural to declare her love, as if she had said it before, a lifetime ago. “And if I’m hurting you, then you can let go.”

He shook his head. “I don’t care about my pain. I just can’t believe you feel the same way…after how I’ve behaved.”

“Why did you do that? Why did you disappear? Why couldn’t you just talk to me?” She threw the questions at him like fastballs.

He didn’t immediately answer, instead running his fingers through her black hair. She closed her eyes at his touch, feeling calm and excited at the same time. 

When she opened them, he motioned to the lounge chair. “Here, lie down with me.”

If Lucas or Colin had said that, it would’ve been followed by a smirk, but not Devin. He just wanted to talk. They were scrunched together on the chair, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. She could smell tobacco on him, but a strong odor of cologne seemed to mask most of it, and for some reason she liked it, but only on him.

He held her hand to his chest. She could feel his heartbeat, thumping frantically, about to explode. “That’s how I am every time I see you. You just…capture me. I don’t know how else to explain it. I see you and no one else matters. Instead of
me
vanishing, everyone else is gone. It’s only you and me in the whole world.”